2021 in Review
2021 was by far the most challenging year of my life. I spent most of this year in mourning the loss of my grandpa, aunt, and pet. While my family and I experienced insurmountable loss of two beautiful and strong members of our family, I still want to write about the things that I believe are worth celebrating even if I didn’t get to celebrate with them.
WORK // CREATIVE
In 2021 altr. produced 7 music videos and a handful of other visual campaigns for artists we love in Colorado, Tennesee, and Utah. This was only possible because of the incredible team we had on each project. Ethan, Hunter, Monique, Amadeus, Peter, Jacob, Ashley, Chase, Conlen, and many more- I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work. Each of you inspire me so much to learn more and work harder.
In September, I got to join Gestalt on their midwest tour doing photo and video for them. This checked off a longtime goal of mine and was truly one of the best weeks of my year.
ACADEMIC
From January to March, I had the pleasure of working on two submissions for the D&AD and One Show creative competitions with a great team of art directors. In November, we were honored at the Denver Ad Club awards with bronze medals for each campaign.
Duolingo Uncensored was an integrated campaign to get teens and tweens to use the Duolingo app. Our strategy was to entice our younger audience with the allure of being able to curse in different languages. Through a mix of out of home, social, and in app integrations, we shared our cheeky copywriting and fun take on the beloved Dulingo brand.
Budweiser: Dad Up was another integrated campaign that leveraged the power of social, in home, out of home, and partnerships with Club House and Home Depot. Our insight was based on the mystical knowledge of dads. We wanted to celebrate that dad knowledge and build the next generation of Bud-lovers by teaching young people all they need to Dad Up is a Budweiser.
PERSONAL
Over the summer, I moved out of Boulder to Denver. I’m so happy to be back in Denver living in one of my favorite neighborhoods.
I spent a weekend in September strolling through San Francisco shooting as much 35mm film as I could and eating a little too much chocolate. I also got to attend Second Sky festival which was my first festival experience where I wasn’t working! I am so grateful to have been able to spend such a magical weekend in my favorite city.
In December, the entire soona team met up in Texas for our yearly summit. While I didn’t get to experience as much of Austin as I would’ve liked, I had a wonderful time bonding with my coworkers and meeting many of them in person for the first time. it’s been great being back at soona during the last half of this year all thanks to this wonderful team.
