“The medium is the message.” ~ Marshall McLuhan
I write about what presently grabs my interest: branding, artful communication, and the stream of awesome citizen journalism that’s beginning to proliferate on Tumblr.
As to my blog name, Fourth-of-Five: er, no, it’s not a reference to Star Trek. Hardly—I used to beg my brothers to change the channel. I am just fourth in a family of five kids. And then, ninth-of-eleven … but that’s a whole other story.
I’m a writer, designer, and all-around creative type. Indeed, I ran my own jewelry business for 15+ years. Thereby, I learned the branding and marketing ropes. As an adult, I went back to school to finish my Bachelor’s (magna cum laude) and my first job thereafter was to re-brand SFERRA Fine Linens, a 120-year old luxury linens company. I took it from new logo redesign, to packaging, website, collateral, and verbal and visual identities (photography, copy voice, signage, and selling floor). The Creative Director focused on all the great new product that went into the packaging, and I focused on the strategy and management of all the other aspects of the rebranding, including hiring a PR agency; in less than two years we’d done a complete company refresh, increased sales over 20%, and drawn supportive praise from the home fashion industry and retailers.
Seems I am one of those weird-o rare people who can do many things: I write, I design, and I can art direct a photo shoot. I’m a good manager of people too—I had twelve employees by the time I was 25 years old. Like that. People sometimes don’t know what to make of all my different experience and capacities. I like to think of my work life and career path as a creative evolution.
Currently, social media engagement is what lights my fire. I plan to be a part of this revolution. And I do believe it’s already here. I like how it’s utterly changing things because upsets to the staus quo often make for wildly creative innovations. I find this dissonant time exciting. Some people still don’t believe…but I’m all in. In: through the eye of the needle.
Currently, I tickle a keyboard at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia by day, but always have one eye open for adventuresome freelance projects.
MARY SHIELDS
