The search is over: announcing our newest addition

SLANT is pleased to announce that Davis Barnes has joined the firm as head of Marketing Intelligence.

With over 10 years of marketing and business development experience, Davis will be working with SLANT’s clients not only to maintain relationships but to guide them through each step of their project and make sure their marketing plans are well defined and executed.

Davis comes to SLANT after serving a sponsorship management role at Family Circle Cup, a premier international women’s tennis tournament. She worked with marketing leaders at Family Circle Cup’s parent company, Meredith Corporation, to incorporate advertisers at the company’s various media holdings (Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness, More, etc.) into the Family Circle Cup event platform.

Davis earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Virginia and fully intends to be counted among their notable alumni, right next to Katie Couric.  Despite our serious addiction to Clemson, we won’t give her too much of a hard time for being a wahoo.

“The role of Marketing Intelligence at SLANT has developed quite a reputation with our clients, and we’re happy that Davis has accepted the challenge of building on that tradition”, says Will Bullock, partner and head of Graphic Intelligence.

Founding partner and Creative Director Christopher Cecil said: “I just hope she doesn’t notice that’s a cardboard cutout of me in my office down there. I think I forgot to tell her I'm working out of our new Greenville office.”

Despite the unfortunate trend of California defections [exhibit A, exhibit B] we’ve encountered, Davis is an exceptional addition to the SLANT team. We hope you’ll like her as much as we do.  Come by and say hello or email her: dbarnes (at) slantmedia.net.

They grow up so fast...

A typical meeting when Lauren is involvedToday marks the end of the “Lauren Era” here at SLANT. While we’re sad to see her go, we’re excited for her and her husband/partner-in-crime Kevin to make a fresh start in San Francisco (which reminds us – what is it about California taking away our marketing managers??) 

So in true SLANT fashion, let's send Lauren off with a list of things that made her so great here:

1. She can't be bothered to know speed limits, gas prices or whatever crap beer you're drinking right now.
2. This video makes her laugh......and laugh....and laugh...until she has to go home for the day to recoup.
3. All new employees will now be required to take the Spirit Animal Test 
4. Christopher is now aware that his "I'm-Listening-To-You" face looks more like a "I-Think-You're-Stupid" face
5. We're all a little beer snobby now...and kinda like it.

When asked to share a quote about what she'd miss most about working at SLANT she did this:

We'll take that as a compliment.   

 Best of luck, Lauren & Kevin – we'll see you on Twitter!

Under 40 and lookin' good at the CRBJ party

Award-winning Christopher Cecil

Picture this: A Tuesday night. Sunny, warm, breezy. Views of Charleston Harbor. Delicious un-oaky chardonnay. Great southern food and a rockin' cheese plate. Forty of Charleston's hottest young professionals and their even hotter (ahem) entourages. 

Team SLANT was there to cheer on our founder + creative director's inclusion in the 2011 CRBJ Forty Under 40 class (here's the backstory). Check out Christopher's CRBJ bio - you'll laugh, you'll cry. And read up on the rest of these Charleston hotshots. We'd list everyone we want to congratulate but that list would get, like, 40 people long.

Take a tour of the event pics plus this ridiculous and wonderful one from @obviouslee. Now, who are you nominating next year?

Update on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Lauren

Oh - P.S. Here's the ad of congratulations we ran in CRBJ's Forty Under 40 print edition:

click to enlarge

Cinco de May'all: a southern-style fiesta

The East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club, in their infinite goodness, decided to create a new fundraising event to support their charitable efforts.

They knew they wanted it to be a Cinco de Mayo party but weren't sure what to call it or what it should look like. So... they called SLANT.

Many of the organization's efforts are pretty serious business - funding and facilitating life-altering surgeries for children and families from countries all over the world. Amazing work but not what you draw on for a party's identity. 

So what else defines them? They're a social bunch and happen to live in a pretty southern community. We started exploring iconic southern elements and Cinco de Mayo elements, while steering clear of the typical cactus, chili pepper and margarita imagery. 

With that in mind, we came up with the name Cinco de May'all. And for the event's logo/poster concept, we incorporated classic southern seersucker, bowties and our favorite contraction of togetherness, blended with the classic Mexican sombrero and tie.

Now, that's a party. Ole!

Connor connor connor chameleon

Connor Lock, AKA ConManBST43879K…7SLANT officially welcomes Connor Lock to the team!

Those of you who visit SLANT HQ often are probably saying, "Um, behind on your blog news much? Connor's been there since July." You're right - Connor started with us in the summer of 2010 as a Slantastic intern while he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Charleston. 

And upon graduating (as Valedictorian - smartypants) he began working with SLANT part time. We keep getting busier and busier (and busier, and busier) and were thrilled to promote Connor to full time status. His title: Artistic Intelligence. What that means to you: Graphic Designer.  

Want to get to know Connor? He's energetic, skateboards to work and is an instructor and mentor to teenagers at a local skatepark. He went to high school in Manchester, England and managed not to pick up a British accent. He knows what a proper pint pour is supposed to look like so don't serve him one with too much head... or ELSE. He thinks this video is really funny. He's a BANa believer and his screenname is conman7bst for all sorts of cryptic reasons. 

As SLANT's Artistic Intelligence, he has contributed to tons of projects from storyboarding to package designs and logo ideation. And while he knows his way around a computer, he starts his creative process with pencil and paper - the kid can draw!

So as you can tell, we know Connor pretty well by now. We hope you get to know him too - say hi next time you're in the neighborhood!

Five years of iFiveK

Team SLANT, 2011The 2011 iFivek was cancelled - but the pizza and beer consumption wasn't! Despite the hail, torrential downpour and soggy-shoe guarantee, there were clear skies on the horizon - we were all ready to run the fifth-annual iFiveK last Thursday, April 21.

But it each time the worst of the weather seemed to be behind us, the rain returned and ultimately the race route, rife with puddles, was unsafe for the crowd of 750 to navigate.

So we did the only logical thing. We huddled inside the Maritime Center and kicked off the after party (sponsored by BoomTown - THANKS guys!)

SLANT has been the race's Creative Sponsor since the first iFiveK and we were thrilled to experience the first sold-out year. From a creative perspective, our biggest overhaul was the new website, then there were new shirts (gotta keep it fresh), updated signage (that saw a lot of rain but no runners) and new photography (you remember Will's death defying escapade, right?).

Great job to Ernest, Amy, Amanda, the Charleston Digital Corridor team and the rest of the sponsors for making it a success. Fingers crossed for clear skies in 2012!

Ready to run. Yeah, turns out we've got some hardcore runners in the group.The calm after the storm (brought to you by BoomTown's beer and CHS's beauty)Double rainbow... all the way! (What does it MEAN?)

SLANT is movin' on up!

... to the Upstate! (For all you northerners, we don't mean New York - that's what we call the Greenville area of SC).

Before you panic, the Charleston SLANT office you know and love is still going to be home sweet home on King Street. We're just excited to announce that we're expanding to Greenville.

That's right, two SLANT offices. Double the pleasure, double the fun!

Why Greenville? 

• It was part of the master plan, ever since SLANT was a twinkle in Christopher's eye
• Lots of snazzy businesses are headquartered in Greenville/Spartanburg
• It's a great HQ for serving ATL and Charlotte area companies who want creative work without all of the layers of a big agency
• We know the area well - Christopher grew up there and we're all Clemson Tigers (FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT)
• World domination has to start somewhere

So, Christopher has hit the road to stake out SLANT's Greenville home. If you want to meet up, make friends or get something started, give us a call at   or email us: projects (at) slantmedia.net. It's a great time to be growing!

Update on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 by SLANT

"Oh, hai Greenville…"

foto providedSLANT Greenville has moved into our new digs at the NEXT Innovation Center. Stop by and say "hi" sometime, or at least show Christopher where to get a good cup of coffee around town.

Megan rolls on!

Photo by Shutterpunk, LCHR photographerIt's with mixed emotion that we say farewell to our resident LCHR rollergirl and Studio Intelligence extraordinaire, Megan DeCamilla.

We'll miss the heck out of Megan but are excited to see her kick off a new job as a technical writer.

Megan, we love your humor, edgy influence and darn good work. Stop by the ol' King Street office anytime - we'll talk about kiwis and otters and sub sandwiches and bear stuffs. And we'll see you throwin' mad booty at the Lowcountry Highroller bouts.

It's been slantastic working with you!

Now off to pick out our next unsuspecting victim... ;)