I was the lead designer for the 34 Degrees Crisps business while at Mad Studios, the agency of record. Not only have I lead their packaging design and other traditional marketing materials, I have been instrumental in reinventing their social media strategy. In order to transform their online presence, the team at Mad Studio and I worked to identify trends in the online space that would help the client define and implement a brand-growth strategy. We focused on creating content “buckets” and “themes” that played into their product and brand awareness goals. One especially successful tool, the monthly photo-shoots, created unique content while requiring a extremely fast turn around and low-budget. Other steps included creating recipes and short, inspirational videos. These changes in strategy and execution have resulted in a distinctive and dramatic shift in user engagement across all their social media outlets.

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Agency: Mad Studio
Client: 34 Degrees Crisps
Art Direction: Elysia Syriac
Photography: Elysia Syriac
Food Styling: Elysia Syriac & Big Olive Creative
Production: Elysia Syriac

Mad Studio was tasked with rebranding the four ale house restaurants owned by Breckenridge-Wynkoop. A major part of the project was to unite their online presence.

Ale houses are places to gather with friends, relax and share a good time. They are not pretentious or arrogant. As a result, we designed an image-forward and community-oriented look and feel.

The layout focused on getting users to two main things: reservations and the menu. It also encouraged users to spend more time on the site by highlighting the local events, brands and efforts of the individual restaurants.

See full page layouts for desktop and mobile here.

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Agency: Mad Studio
Client: Breckenridge-Wynkoop Restaurant Holdings
Art Direction: Elysia Syriac, Monique VanAssche
Design: Elysia Syriac & Lisa Wright
Development: Carbon 8
Copywriting: Jay Roth
Photography: Marc Piscotty

I directed AIGA Colorado's Bordo Bello from 2009-2013. Each year, we worked with a different local artist to create the look and feel of the event. My role was to anually art direct and oversee the design and implementation of all the various elements, as well as manage the event as a whole. This included the identity, website design, social media page design, poster, banners, auction tickets, photo booth design, event experience development and more. 

My leadership also oversaw the committees that reached out to participating artists, sponsors and volunteers. I developed the strategy behind the outreach for each area, ensuring that they were targeted appropriately to maximize involvement and benefit.

Through the course of 5 years, and 6 events, this event grew from 50 local artists to 400 including a large number of national artists; from no partners to over 40; from raising $3000 in its first year, to over $20,000 for two consecutive years. In total, Bordo Bello hosted over 1000 artists and raised over $55,000 for AIGA Colorado's mentorship programs. 

I have presented the program as the lead inspiration story at the 2012 AIGA Leadership Conference and was invited to host the 6th Bordo Bello Event at the National Design Center in NYC. The event was featured on ArtInfo.com as well as Transworld Business.

Check out the incredible pictures from 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 on Flickr. Also check out a recap video from 2010 as well as a stop motion video of a window box art piece for our NY show. Attendance at the NYC show was well over double the expected amount.

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Benefactors:
AIGA Colorado & VSA Arts of Colorado
Event Management:
Elysia Syriac & Charles Carpenter
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2009
Branding: Elysia Syriac
Photography: Julie Johnston
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2010
Branding: Shaw Nielsen
Photography: Kim Sidwell
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2011
Branding: Hari Panicker & Deepti Nair
Photography: Jessica Grenier
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2012
Branding: Mackey Saturday
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2013
Branding: Eric Winslow
Window Box: Hari Panicker & Deepti Nair
Photography: Lori O'Neill
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Skateboards: Boardpusher.com
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There are so many other people not listed here who helped make this event a reality and success for so long. It is to them and everyone listed here that I am forever grateful for the opportunity.

I created video for 34 Degrees in two categories: tradeshow and social media.

The tradeshow videos were created and designed to promote product launches. They were longer in format to catch a viewer's eye in a very chaotic atmosphere. In this space, 34 Degrees succesfully demonstrated the personality of the brand.

For social media, the team designed three content areas: education, entertainment and inspiration. The goal was to provide ideas and insights to their target audience that included the use of their product as well as everyday tips and tricks.

This is just a sampling of the work created.

This is just a sampling of the work created.

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Agency: Mad Studio
Client: 34 Degrees Crisps
Art Direction: Elysia Syriac
Writing: Big Olive Creative
Food Styling: Elysia Syriac & Big Olive Creative
Production: Elysia Syriac
Animation: Siren Vid

Distilling large amounts of information into small digestible content areas can be a challenging task. When done well, the result is an engaging graphic that tells a story while educating it's reader. Here are examples of my work in this area.

This is a sampling of the online materials I have had the opportunity to work on. In each one, the team developed a strategy with the client and worked to deliver those goals. 

I have experience in designing HTML emails, landing pages and whole websites. I have worked with a developer to bring them to life; however, I have competent knowledge in HTML and CSS. Thus, I can assist in making any last minute tweaks, as well as provide specific technical design edits.

AIGA Colorado was host to the AIGA Chapter Leadership Retreat in 2014. To celebrate the coming together of 68 chapters, a small team banded together to create an app that would be the "designers guide to a city." We named it "Curated" to honor the content created and specifically procured for this app. It launched with success in 2015 and has been steadily growing in interest ever since. After a year of working with the app, the team applied for an AIGA Innovate Grant and was awarded a significant sum to revamp the app so that it could work with multiple chapters and become a national AIGA asset that travelers could use across the US. We launched the app with three other AIGA chapters in June of 2016, and two new chapters are set to launch the app in the fall of 2017. The rollout includes a media campaign and toolkit for any AIGA Chapter. You can check out the current version and download Curated here.

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Project Coordinator, Chapter Liaison & Design Support: Elysia Syriac
Design:
Wigwam Creative & Enzed Design
Marketing:
Enzed Design
Development:
Artletic & Wigwam Creative

Branding is a critical component for all businesses. Here are examples of my identity work. Each design started with a deep exploration of brand values and goals in order to articulate the best execution of their brand mark.

I have worked with many clients in a wide range of advertising and promotional projects. This sampling of projects demonstrates that. All have started with an initial concept, I then illustrated, designed and produced them myself. 

Projects have included:

• Promotions and events
• Print collateral & advertisements
• Social Media
• Snapchat filters
• POP displays
• Gift cards and coupons
• Sweepstakes
• Digital banners
• New product launches
• Websites
• Photography
• Exterior signage
• Merchandise
• Street banners & billboards
• Large scale graphics

While at Mad Studio, we collaborated with the University of Denver's Alumni Association to create a theme for a their major annual event. Challenges included: previous events that had no overall theme to build from, a large team of reviewers to please, and tight timelines and budgets to meet. The design was inspired by the World's Fairs of the early twentieth century. Strong illustration and typography gave a unique presence to this event while still staying true to the University's brand standards. Response was very positive with the event selling out 2 weeks in advance of the event.

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Agency: Mad Studio
Client: University of Denver Alumni Association
Art Direction: Elysia Syriac
Illustration & Production: Elysia Syriac
Printer: Sprint Press

To celebrate AIGA’s significant mile markers, AIGA Colorado created Chaircuterie – an event built around a theme of 100 chairs/100 artists. We worked with many commercial and artistic partners to create full size, miniature and two-dimensional (representative) chairs. I directed a committee that was responsible for design, event logistics, social media, web content, artist connections, sponsorship and budget. The event was featured in 5280, Denver Post and Modern in Denver. It was attended by 550 attendees and raised over $15,000 in its first year.  

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Benefactors:
AIGA Colorado & Denver Art Museum
Event Management:
Elysia Syriac & Marjorie Gardner
Designer: Lisa Wright
Photography: Lenn Stout
** plus the incredible amount of committee members, volunteers, artists, sponsors, and attendees who made this happen.

I directed a task force of 10 chapter leaders investigating how AIGA, the professional association for design, would use $1 million to help develop its their communities. Our team worked to create an application process that balanced ideas with execution and emphasized thinking big and taking chances. I art directed the branding of the program and resided on the committee to judge the applications. In the first year of the 4-year program we received 57 applications and the funds for awarded projects totaled $129,000. I will be overseeing the application process through 2017 as well. To date, we have awarded over $500,000 to chapter projects across the nation.

To learn more, visit AIGA Innovate.

Lettering is my passion project. It combines my love for the word along with a deep appreciation of typography. I can also experiment with different techniques – both with illustration and texture. Many of the examples below have been completed as parts of social media designs for various clients that include International Delight, Silk, Mad Studios as well as personal promotion.