2nd Annual BIC Portfolio Bootcamp

In the first week of March, BIC held its second annual PORTFOLIO BOOTCAMP. Taking advantage of a week off from the usual slate of classes, our graduating students got the chance to work intensely on their portfolios with the help of visiting professionals with design, content, and storytelling expertise. This year, BICsters were fresh from the February 26th  PiP (Portfolio-in-Progress) Recruitment Event where soon-to-be grads received portfolio critiques from industry talent agents. BIC students arrived at bootcamp with notes in hand, detailed plans, ready to work.

Big BIC thanks to our AMAZING guest mentors this year!

On Monday, Mark Brooks, Brand Director at Behance, and Yury Vargas, CD/CA at D’Exposito, began the week with a focus on design and digital platforms. On Tuesday, Joe Wiggins, Account Supervisor at CoynePR focused on developing portfolio content alongside Senior Graphic Designers at Gravity Media, Neil Francisco and Courtney Kozloski. Ryan Kipp, Director/Producer at Trigger Creative, and Writer/Director/Editor Ash Meer zoned in on case study development on Wednesday night. And on Thursday night, Denise Byrd, CD/CW/Storytelling Expert, and Chelsea Campbell, CD at WME|IMG, led a final focus on content development.

Thanks to each mentors’ invaluable expertise and feedback, BIC students have all the insider tips, trick, and tools they need to perfect their portfolios for what we expect will be standout presentations on Portfolio Thesis Defense day May 26^th.

If you are a branding and marketing communications professional working in creative, public relations, or planning and strategy and available on May 26^th email bic@ccny.cuny.edu. We are actively organizing our panels of thesis judges!

For bios about each of our fabulously accomplished 2016 Portfolio Bootcamp mentors keep scrolling…

Mark Brooks is a graphic designer and art director born in Barcelona. He moved to New York where he's lived and worked since 2007. He’s had the privilege of participating in design conferences, exhibits, and lectures and enjoyed working for clients such as NIKE, Lufthansa, Villar-Rosàs, The New York Yankees, Behance Network, Estrella Damm, NBA, Club Razzmatazz, SantaMonica, Magro Cardona and LT Burger New York, among others. You can follow Mark on Twitter @justmarkbrooks. 

Yury Vargas is the Digital Creative Director at Dexposito & Partners, a Hispanic advertising agency in NYC. He's currently teaching in the BIC Creative Track. You can follow Yury on Twitter @yuryvargas. 

Courtney Kozloski joined Gravity’s creative team in 2014, right after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Growing up in Rochester, NY she was always crafting, exploring and being creative in some way or another. Her favorite part about Gravity is definitely the people she gets to collaborate with everyday. You can follow Courtney on Twitter @clkozloski. 

Neil Francisco worked at Harlem RBI and DREAM Charter School, a youth development nonprofit organization in East Harlem, NY, prior to joining Gravity. He is fluent in English and Tagalog, and grew up in both Manila, Philippines and New York. Neil received his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Providence College. He joined Gravity as a Graphic Designer because it gives him an opportunity to learn something new every single day. You can follow Neil on Twitter @neilfrancisco. 

Joe Wiggins joined Coyne PR in 2014 and graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History. He oversees management, media relations and execution of campaigns for clients. His clients have appeared on major media outlets including USA Today, Good Morning America, New York Times, TMZ, Essence, Esquire, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Latina. Joe provides clients with similar results at the local level in markets in California, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and New York. Joe has worked with global companies such as AOL, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Universal Pictures, National Basketball Association (NBA) and Grace Foods. He has launched and directed the profiles of music, sports and film superstars such as Pitbull, Dwight Howard and Tyrese Gibson to name a few.

Ash Meer has worked as a freelance designer, animator and visual effects artist for commercial and broadcast clients in Europe, Asia, and the US. He has also worked as senior visual effects artist and Art Director. His first film, “Stages of Integration” premiered at the 1991 Asian American Film Festival and screened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Neighborhood Film and Video, the Whitney Museum and the National Asian Pacific American Film Festival. As a designer and animator his clients have included Kennedy Etc., Eyeball, PandaPanther, Offspring, Imaginary Forces, 21boom, UVPhactory, Liquid Design Group, SkyTV, Channel 5, Discovery Kids, The Learning Channel, Chanel, Anna Sui, Tommy Hilfiger, Takeout Creative, Yard and AOL. Ash has professional experience in nearly every stage of advertising media production, from copywriting and storyboarding, to shooting, editing, graphics, visual effects and color correction. Ash has a BA in Philosophy from Emory University.  You can follow Ash on Twitter @ashmeer. 

Denise Byrd freelances as a writer and consults with boutique agencies, entrepreneurs and nonprofits to solve branding and communications challenges. As an advertising copywriter and Creative Director, she produced numerous content videos on a variety of high profile brands. Denise has 15+ years of experience as a versatile and creatively-driven brand builder, skilled at managing the development of digital content and traditional advertising. She is an innate storyteller, consistently able to express a brand’s voice and weave its narrative across all media, including TV, print, digital, social, and experiential.  You can follow Denise on Twitter @byrddee. 

Chelsea Campbell is a Creative Director specializing in experiential communications. She has drive and passion for innovation in communications and translating creative ideas into tangible, interactive experiences. During Chelsea’s work at Momentum Worldwide, she led creative on an award-winning VR experience You Vs. Sharapova, a fully interactive, consumer facing virtual reality experience using HTC Valve technology, created with ReelFX and housed inside the American Express Fan Experience at the US Open. For the launch of the tournament she produced the world’s first hydro-interactive Rally on the River, another award-winning world’s first.

Ryan Kipp attended Emerson College, and received a BFA in Acting.  After college he was a professional actor for several years.  At that point he decided to learn the craft of editing in order to eventually create his own work and hone his skills as a director. Ryan worked as a video editor and animator in the advertising, PR and production industries for years.  The experience working with directors both as an actor and editor/animator provided Ryan with a wide array of tools to use as a director, and has completed that transition over the past 3 years. His recent client list includes THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HEALTH PROGRAM, THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, CRUNCH FITNESS, POUND FITNESS, and THE MILES GROUP. THE COLLECTOR, a short documentary that Ryan shot, directed and produced, won best documentary at the New York Downtown Short Film Festival and played many other film festivals in the US and abroad.  He is currently in production for a feature-length documentary based on the same subject. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @wryankipp.