SLC your Outdoor Signage starts here!

Our second year here at SLC gave us the chance for our first 3 week work placement in the business world.

The Criteria? An assistant to a business (entrepreneur or corporation) permitting they have an office space or desk to work at. Some of us went to Toronto, Brockville or stayed in Kingston and since home for me is 5 hours away (sigh) I found a local start-up business who took me in for January.

It’s hard to explain ‘a day in the life’ because the daily tasks I was assigned hopefully won’t have to be redone two or three months from now after the company is well established. So this is more of a summarized reflection for future IMC’ers of what you will probably do if you get a placement with a start-up entrepreneur.

Sarah Toupin Inc. Outdoor Art & Business Signage is named after its owner, Sarah Toupin a French-Canadian artist, photographer & interior designer. Using unique weather-proof, UV resistant inks to showcase over 20 beautiful shades such as Cold Mauve, Berry smoothie, green Zen, Old Charm pink & Royal red. A state of the art Canadian printing & lamination process creates elegant signage with premium surface protection that is versatile and durable against the unforgiving climates that lead to warping, cracking & rust.

The first task I had was to update her database of business cards that has been accumulating throughout the past three or so years. Sarah goes to every ‘Chamber of Commerce MEGAMIXER’ and also took me on a fieldtrip to a Kingston Connections meeting. I had to organize the business cards into city/region/province and if they spoke English or French, then put them into a database binder and type all the information from each card into her Excel spreadsheet & Windows Outlook contact list.

The second thing we started was an ‘introductory’ direct email campaign explaining the business, owner and why the business' of Kingston should take up doing business with Sarah Toupin Inc. The next ongoing task was to redesign her promotional brochure and Photoshop old & new logos to be used on her website and social media. We created a press release to send out to the media during our ‘introductory blast.”  I also created a certificate of authentication to be added to all product packaging and a ‘product fact sheet’ which was applauded for its technical & design accuracy by the head of the marketing department of the product manufacturer.

Sarah has endured many sleepless nights meticulously researching to find metallic photographic aluminum that provides year-round outdoor sustainability.  Signage from Sarah Toupin Inc. can be withstand harsh wind & hail, can be rained on in thunderstorms, wont rust or crack during blizzards and keep its shape in scolding heat.

The first thing Sarah ever told me was "I didn't want to sell my clients controversial material that makes poor quality products. There is a great deal of trust needed in business-to-business selling."

We repositioned her Facebook page (the same with her Etsy online store,) and also created a Twitter & Pinterest account. I also edited her website as it was still under construction so there was a three-way of communication between Sarah, the website developer Wil and myself.)

Through those 3 weeks I learned a lot about Sarah and myself. We both share almost the same ‘perfectionist’ personality so every day was relaxed and entertaining but still full of daunting work. That being said I would highly recommend this placement to any ‘Gold personalities’ that love organization & precision. We revised and edited multiple items/assignments over a multitude of times so anyone with a high sense of patience is a strong asset.

Overall, it was a great experience and I’ve gained an invaluable friend who I am SO proud of. I’m so thankful to Sharon Kaye of Research&Writing Inc. for referring her to me. And I’m definitely thankful I took this program in order to have this opportunity. All future students should definitely take advantage of this and I know all of us ‘upper years and alumni’ will be here to help if needed – I know I will be!

For more information about Sarah Toupin please go to her website www.sarahtoupin.com

* To see some examples of the work I did for Sarah please go to my Portfolio fb.com/Creative.Dunning

Are Allergens going undercover!?

Following my previous posts about the different types of allergens that people with food allergies suffer from I came across an article ALLERGIC LIVING posted about the hidden names and products of the most known allergies to date.

It made me wonder, what if you are allergic to a specific ingredient but you only knew it by ONE name? What if other food manufacturers list it as a different name on their ingredients lists? It takes the "May Contain..." warning to a new level worry.

Its amazing to learn the different names and definitions that different languages and cultures can have for every day items. But when it comes to food allergies it's scary to think that buying a package of crackers could still fatally harm you even if it says "100% peanut free."
So I took some pictures of the chart incase you want a summarized version of some of these hidden secrets...

'Cracking' down on Nut allergies

For most people I meet they don’t really know or understand what a food allergy is. It’s hard to think that in this day and age there are still people who don’t even know allergies exist or how to deal with them. It’s even harder when you start to realize the people around you really do take everyday interaction with everyday objects for granted.

People with food based allergies take risks everyday with bacteria and cross-contamination. We shouldn’t have jobs where we have to clean merchandise and touch shelves (and God only knows where that 20.00 dollar bill plus change your giving to your customer has been). We shouldn’t touch public doorknobs or school desks or chairs because who knows what the student before you ate there.

My mom taught me that yes you do have to be careful. She taught me that you have to just take a step back, breathe, and have enough patience to try to teach the ones around you so that they understand better.

My best friend could tell you I have a bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse, backpack, and my room. A few of my classmates have even stared as I “sanitized my hand sanitizer bottle” after someone asked if they could use some. But I can’t live my life in a bubble of safety. No one should let any kind of allergy shelter you from living your life to the fullest.

There’s a saying that “it takes two to tango” and that goes for friendships and relationships as well. If a relationship is going to work then you both have to trust and understand each other. Although I have grown up only trusting myself, an allergy is a heavy burden to bear on your own.

Most people I talk to ask me why I don’t just say I have a “peanut allergy” instead of a “nut allergy” and this is because it makes NO sense to take such a risk to get tested to see if I am only allergic to chestnuts or walnuts. For more information ALLERGIC LIVING posted a great article explaining “the scoop on peanuts and nut oils”.

What IS an Allergy?

According to ALLERGIC LIVING this is the definition of a food allergy:

A food allergy occurs when a person’s immune system identifies proteins in a food as allergenic and begins to produce antibodies – called Immunoglobulin E or IgE – to guard against that food (e.g. shellfish or peanuts). These antibodies attach themselves to mast cells in the body, and when the person again eats the allergenic food, the proteins from it become attached to the IgE antibodies. This causes the mast cells to explode, releasing histamine and other powerful chemicals. It is these chemicals that cause the symptoms of allergy.

ALLERGIC LIVING also has an explanation for Anaphylaxis:

Anaphylaxis is the severe form of allergic reaction. It involves one or more of the body’s symptoms; for example, the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory tract, the skin and the cardiovascular system. A person experiencing anaphylaxis often has difficulty breathing, and the person could lose consciousness. Anaphylaxis puts a person at risk of death.Anaphylactic reactions can come on quickly, and it’s impossible to know when a reaction will become severe. It’s important that people with food allergies are prepared for a reaction by always carrying an epinephrine auto-injector (either EpiPen or Twinject).Experts recommend using epinephrine early if a person known to be at risk of anaphylaxis begins to show signs of allergy symptoms – don’t wait until the symptoms worsen, as it may become to difficult put a halt to the reaction once it’s in progress.

Examples of How Accidents with Foods Can Happen

1. Eating unlabelled foods. If in doubt, don’t.

2. Accidental contamination of other foods
e.g. jam or butter, or of eating utensils, food trays, tables and toys. A common problem is jam contaminated with peanut butter by using the same knife.* Remember that even if a peanut allergic child is not offered peanut butter, eating jam at a home where there is peanut butter may not be safe. Packing peanut butter sandwiches with other foods.

3. Unpackaged foods
e.g. a cookie jar may contain traces of nuts from previous nut-containing cookies. Another cookie taken from that jar may contain traces of nuts on it. Bulk foods and buffet meals may also be dangerous because of cross-contamination. Be cautious of free cookie samples at stores.

4. Contamination during preparation.
For instance, perhaps a cutting board is used to prepare 2 foods – e.g. chicken and fish – and the chicken is served to a fish allergic person; or perhaps the same board or knife is used to slice or grind nuts. Using the same oil to fry different foods, or the same batter for different foods, or the same frying utensils for different foods without washing in-between can all cause cross-contamination. Grinding specialty nutflavoured coffees in a coffee grinder. Baking muffins with and without nuts if leftover batter is used for other muffins or if baking pans are not properly cleaned.

5. Contamination during serving
e.g. sauces mixed by spillage; the same scoop is used to take scoops of different ice creams some of which may contain nuts; a knife used to cut a nut-containing dessert and then used to cut another dessert.

6. Relying on someone who does not know but who tells you the food is safe, for instance, another child, or someone who did not prepare the food such as a waiter, salesclerk or airline attendant. Being served an incorrect dish from what was ordered.

7. Trying a food to see if you are “still allergic,” especially with an anaphylactic allergy.

8. Tasting a food carefully to see “if it is safe or not” is dangerous.

9. A change in the way a usual food is made.
For instance, a change in the ingredient list without any obvious change on looking at the container. A new chef at a restaurant may change the recipe and add a “secret ingredient”.

10. Candy machines may have different foods at different times and candies may be contaminated with traces of nuts if there were previously nuts in the dispensing machine.

11. Non-food sources of peanut
e.g. homemade playdough, scented crayons, cosmetics or fishing lures with peanut, peanut shell stuffing in bean bags, draft stoppers, and stuffed toys, peanut in animal food – hamster, gerbil and bird food granules.