By Grace Chu, Senior Account Executive, The Hoffman Agency Hong Kong
Wonder what it’s like to be a design intern at The Hoffman Agency?
You can draw inspiration from our former Design Intern Ben Leung’s 5 key takeaways.
Right, got it … So what?
To give this a twist, we flipped roles so I could share my observations of Ben’s internship as his neighbor in the Hong Kong office.
Here’s what a typical day for Ben looked like from my perspective:
0900 Through the glass doors of the WOW meeting room in Hong Kong, I saw Ben enthusiastically presenting his artwork to our global creative services team, including Chauncey, Bonnie and Marjan seated in our San Jose headquarters via our Lifesize video conferencing.
1000 Argh! While I was trying to concentrate on my daily media monitoring reports, the distracting and slightly annoying sound of crunching apples and sometimes chips (yes — in the morning!) would come from Ben’s desk even after he already had a huge breakfast at home. I’ve always wondered how people like Ben who never diet can stay slim — happily showing off their bodies by the pool without a second thought. How do they manage to maintain that lean figure? Perhaps that’s where Ben got his inspiration when he conceptualized this awesome TGIF GIF for our marketing efforts.
1200 I attended a client event with Ben to witness his creatively designed backdrops, pull-up banners and product catalogs. What a talent — I wish I had his design prowess! Our Hong Kong team set out together with our client MOOV in kicking off the launch event for its newest Music Therapy Feature that aimed at boosting Hong Kong’s spirit while addressing its soaring stress levels. Tough job, but we were all smiles from creating a visually satisfying and chillaxing experience with MOOV Music Therapy demo areas stylishly decorated with plush sofas and rugs, intimate sessions with music therapists and tea tasting menus matched to suitable playlists! I could tell Ben was eager to work with this group of young ladies … his face emanating joy!
1500 Next up, Ben collaborated with the marketing champions, client-servicing teams and our designers in our bi-weekly Creative Juices brainstorming session hosted by the regional marketing team to squeeze a healthy dose of innovative approaches for various clients and our own organization. Acting very much like a blender, Ben and the marketing team pulverized and whipped various ideas into a creative smoothie! Here’s the National Dog Day GIF that he orchestrated.
1600 And finally, it was the highlight of my day! It was time for my ears to enjoy the sound of Ben humming his favorite tune. No distractions (for Ben, at least) or meetings, just design time. What impressed me the most about Ben was his ability to take complex briefs from our client servicing team and shape the concepts into digital images, especially in ways that were easily understood by our clients’ key stakeholders.
Here are a couple visual assets he curated for our client’s social media posts:
Reflecting back, Ben is quite a likable character and a team player. On a personal level, I secretly admire his creativity and cheerful personality.
Ben has been instrumental in inspiring the rest of the team while producing top-quality visual assets in advancing our visual storytelling chops.
By playing this vital role, he not only harnessed the power of visual storytelling, but also brought creative communications to the next level.
We really enjoyed our journey with Ben. He added a little “more” sunshine to our already beaming day!
So, are you interested in joining our ever-expanding pool of visual storytellers … and being my neighbor?
