Richardson High School senior Ciera Hanks worked at The Loomis Agency this fall as part of the RISD Professional Internship Program, building her own project campaign and learning more about advertising and marketing.
PIP allows students to intern at a place of their choosing to gain experience in their desired workforce before college. Ciera’s main assignment was a creative campaign with three print ads. This included writing a creative brief, concepting, copywriting, pencil layouts, shooting custom photography, designing layouts and presentation of the campaign.
“When I started, I expected to do a lot more busy work, but I have really gotten to learn every aspect of the job from many different people,” Ciera said. “Something interesting about Loomis is that anyone can bring their dog into the office and hang out. There are a couple of dogs that are there every day, while others pop in, and it’s a pleasant surprise when they are there.”
Some of the things Ciera learned over the 13 weeks included how ad agencies work, project workflow, and what media buyers, planners, account services, art directors, copywriters, account directors, creative directors, digital media buyers, production artists, and graphic designers do. She saw how the agency creates social media and TikToks, engaged in note-taking and time-blocking, and studied how to shoot tabletop photography among many other things.
“Throughout her internship, Ciera was very attentive and asked a lot of very good questions,” Loomis Executive Creative Director Tina Tackett said. “She was on time, professional, participative and curious.”
For more information on the Professional Internship Program, please contact Amanda Adams at amanda.adams@risd.org or Amanda Gulley at amanda.gulley@risd.org. Applications open in the spring semester of a student’s junior year.
(This feature was written by Richardson senior Lily Nicholson, who was also a PIP intern this semester, working with RISD Strategy & Engagement.)
