The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale: Welcome to the Real World
To keep their diverse clientele happy — and their growing reputation intact — Artemis concentrates on “the type of swift and flexible service that only Mac technology can provide.” says Christine. “Overall we have about 250 Macs throughout the school, including labs in the dorms that are open day and night.
“So if someone in the honors program has a brainstorm at midnight, they’re free to grab a project off the server, work on it to their heart’s content, even upload it to our FTP site to share it with other students, faculty or clients.
“At the end of the day, the professionalism inspired by our Mac system means we can meet deadlines and turn projects around a lot faster and smoother than many agencies staffed by more experienced folks.
“For our Honors students, the benefits are enormous. All of them are graduating with a minimum of six months of real-world experience on their resumés and high-end printed pieces to put in their portfolios.”
Passing The Client Test
“I’ve had numerous clients say to me, ‘Well, I was a bit leery at first when I heard students did the work, but I thought I’d give it a try because I heard good things about you,’” she says. But their willingness to entrust the job to the students more than pays off when they request something at nine in the morning, say, and a few hours later they’re told to come and pick up the finished work.
“That’s where the real credibility comes in, and the added value, because obviously these are clients that can go to any agency — and there are some world-class agencies here in South Florida. We’ve won numerous advertising awards. We’ve been featured in design publications. The word’s getting out that Artemis gives you quality design, on time — the way it should be done in the real world.”
But it’s not just the clients who benefit. “For our Honors students, the benefits are enormous,” Christine says. “All of them are graduating with a minimum of six months, sometimes a full year, of real-world experience on their resumés. They’re getting nice, high-end printed pieces to put in their portfolios. They’re getting honors-level notation on their college transcripts.”
Doors Swing Open
Their experience and recognition at the Art Institute have in turn led to enviable job placement — at such agencies as Crispin Porter Bogusky, Saatchi and Saatchi, McCann Erickson, BBDO, J. Walter Thompson. “Plus — and this is especially rewarding for me — I have three students who’ve actually started their own agencies,” says Christine.
“Because, thanks again to the speed and power and reliability of the Macs we work on, we’re not just teaching them design skills, we’re teaching them entrepreneurship at the same time. They’re learning how to deal with clients one on one, how to create and manage expectations, how to budget projects, how to run a business. All the back-end practicalities that, quite honestly, determine success or failure in the real world.”
”But we also work for a number of start-up companies and some very large enterprises,” she adds. “Truly Nolen, for example, is the third largest pest control company in the United States. They could certainly go to any big advertising agency around — but we’re their agency of record.
