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Thursday, 29 September 2005 | Levent OZLER
Graphic Designers Placed in Compromising Position
NewPage Corporation, today unveiled the winners of a makeover contest featured on its thetrueyou Web site. Randomly selected from a pool of the first 1,000 site registrants, the three winners are: Erik Mace, Chicago; Frances Yllana, Dallas; and Jenn Richey, New York City. True to its claim, which promised lucky winners they could shuck their everyday wardrobes and plunge into the world of chic, the contest provided each a personal metamorphosis: from regular hip guy to rock star, from fresh faced girl to forties femme fatale, and from cutie to 1950s kitschy.
In keeping with the company's program to help graphic designers improve themselves and their business, thetrueyou makeover contest was designed as a unique alternative to run-of-the-mill competitions of the type found on other graphic designer-centered sites.
Besides winning the contest, all three winning designers had several things in common -first, the stress of role reversal, they had to pose in front of the camera instead of being behind it and calling the shots. The compulsion to art direct was something each of them had to suppress. "That was an eye opening experience," said Frances Yllana, an art director at Eisenberg & Associates in Dallas. "Thankfully, we were included in the process of selecting our new 'look,' otherwise we'd have been in extreme distress instead of having a lot of fun dressing up and changing personas for the day."
Second was the intrigue of the event. "I didn't know what to expect," says Erik Mace (Mace was in transition between Chicago and San Francisco at the time of his makeover). "I'd never won anything in my life and a makeover was something entirely out of my realm of experience... not a 'guy' kind of thing. My only frame of reference was the extreme makeovers that seem so popular on television. The whole experience was great."
And finally, all agreed thetrueyou campaign was not run-of-the-mill. The availability of well-written articles by known professionals, along with videos on topics of particular interest to graphic designers and more, makes the site an invaluable resource to keep going back to - not only to see what's new, but also for inspiration. "I think the overall concept is very non-traditional and a lot of fun," says Jenn Richey, graphic designer at Neo Design Group in Manhattan. "I loved the contest and liked that it wasn't a typical makeover. I also like that they didn't try to just change me, they took my views into consideration. I'd use my 'after' photo in an ad campaign in a New York minute."
The makeover winners' before and after photos, as well as other new program opportunities, can be seen at http://www.thetrueyou.com
At NewPage, thetrueyou site represents the company's commitment to creative professionals by offering interesting challenges, educational tools, mentoring, incentives, and unusual contests to graphic designers across the industry.
The site, which evolves along with the company's changing programs, continues to be designed by Cheryl Heller of Heller Communications; Hunt and Gather sustains the iterations.
About NewPage Corporation
NewPage Corporation, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is a leading U.S. producer of coated and carbonless papers in North America. With more than 6,300 employees, the company operates five integrated pulp and paper manufacturing mills located in Chillicothe, Ohio; Escanaba, Michigan; Luke, Maryland; Rumford, Maine; and Wickliffe, Kentucky. These mills have a combined annual capacity of approximately 2.5 million tons of coated and carbonless paper.
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