I am a small town guy living in a 24 hour city. I am from a small town Shelby, in North Carolina originally, and I moved to Las Vegas after a few quarters in Appalachian State University. While attending school in North Carolina I worked on a Musical Theater degree. I started to attend The Art Institute of Las Vegas, where I am working on a Fashion Retail Management degree. My biggest focus while attending The Art Institute of Las Vegas is marketing and merchandising.
While attending school back in North Carolina, I managed to works a merchandiser for Macys at a flagship store in Charlotte, NC. At this point is when I realized my passion for clothing and styling items to produce revenue for a company. While I wanted to finish school in North Carolina, I decided to take a transfer from Macys and move to Las Vegas and start my career job start in the big city. There I worked as a Visual Merchandise Manager. I worked for the company for several years till 2012 when I got recruited out to work for Victoria’s Secret. Working for Victoria’s Secret I was a Visual Manger for another flagship store for the brand. Working with this company really opened my eyes on the bigger picture of making sure that you know that investment of the placement of merchandise. I had the pleasure of being able to travel to different cities opening up other stores and being able to see the differences of merchandise that buyers choose for certain stores. After, a few years of working for Victoria’s Secret I wanted to test myself in a different field of retail, so I went into being an Assistant Store Manager for Lucky Brand. I haven’t hung up my merchandising skills but rather placed them on hold for the moment.
As, for my future and the plans that I would like for myself after school, I would like to work as a District Visual Manager for a retailer or work for a branding company as a Branding Consultant. I love travelling and making things in stores look as best as the can, from merchandising so that would be the future for me after school.
When I am not working or not doing some type of school activity I am either wondering the city, or I am just out and about eating and shopping. With being in a city that has a variety of shopping or browsing at merchandising skills from flagship stores to just your normal retailers makes it something new each day. Being in a city with 4 actual malls, 2 outlets, several shopping plazas, and almost every hotel has a large shopping area in it.
My designer that I adore the most happens to be Calvin Klein. It is not even for the clothing; however, I really like underwear for men. I could go into the Calvin Klein Underwear store almost every single and never get tired of going in there. I like that Calvin Klein is an American designer has accomplished a few awards.
According to http://biography.yourdictionary.com/calvin-klein Calvin Klein had taught himself to sew and sketch before he was even in high school. “Klein's design philosophy is rooted in minimalism (extreme simplicity). He typically uses neutral colors or earth tones (browns), and designs separates (articles of clothing designed to be worn interchangeably with others to form various combinations) that work in many different ensembles, from day to night and season to season. At the same time his advertising for jeans and fragrances was being criticized, Calvin Klein clothing was receiving critical acclaim for its clean, modern lines. The reason that I like Calvin Klein is that I really like the advertising that is used with the brand. Real simple and timeless.
I have worked with a few companies that are locally here in Las Vegas. I worked with a few fashion companies that needed help working on their advertising. I helped a few friends that owns businesses with their business cards and logos for advertising.
In the future, I plan on opening up my own men’s undergarment company. I would like to take away from this course the knowledge of being able to use advertising to the best of my ability. I would also like to learn the correct ways to use online methods as a way of advertising for my future company. I think I will be able to use this course to gain the information that I need to update the business plan that I have and also be able to make a logo decision also.
