Now that I'm back at Sandstrom after the golf state championships and our class's trip to the zoo, I can give an update on how things have been going. Last week was very interesting. After day one (which you heard about in my last blog post), Peter Shulman commented that I was "thrown of the deep end". At the time, I agreed with him, but it turns out I had little idea how deep the swimming pool actually gets at Sandstrom. I mean this in the best way. My first day, my mentor, Jack, and everyone else at Sandstrom spent a lot of time making me feel comfortable. Lots of time was spent explaining things to me, making sure that I understood what was going on. Days two and three, however, were much more demanding. I was no longer just a guest observing what was going on; I became a true intern with work for myself.

I sat in on another audit of Krekow Jennings by Daniel, but this time after the phone call finished, I was thrown a recording of the conversation and asked to transcribe it. I was surprised, but happy to do the work. It was a small job, yet I enjoyed doing something that would actually be of use to Sandstrom. It was an awesome feeling to know that I had become a part, even if it was a tiny part, of Sandstrom's creative process. Before I could even get started on the transcribing, however, I got called into another audit of KJ and was again asked to transcribe that interview as well. I thought, "This is what it feels like to be part of a company." People at Sandstrom, especially Daniel Baxter who was conducting the interviews, trusted me and were even starting to rely on me. And I wasn't babied through the process. I was simply asked to do a job and expected to execute it. 

Then after lunch, in what felt like a reward for my hard work, Daniel brought me along for his presentation to the Brian Grant Foundation. The Brian Grant Foundation, was founded by the ex-Trailblazer Brian Grant after he was diagnosed with Parkinsons. Sandstrom had been contracted to work of the brand indentity of the foundation. Their work included the foundation's website, employee business cards, foundation envelopes, letterheads for the foundation's mail, along with guidance with the marketing direction of the foundation. Sandstrom had finished doing all of the secondary research that proceeds the design of the foundation's appearance through their website, business card, etc. Daniel's job was to present Sandstrom's findings to the foundation, more specifically, Brian Grant himself. This was not only an opportunity for me to see were the Krekow Jennings project was headed, but also to meet Brian, one of my favorite players as a kid. The meeting was awesome. It was so cool to sit next to a childhood idol of mine, but even cooler to hear Daniel present Sandstrom's work to him. Brian was so impressed with what Sandstrom had done. Being a parkinsons patient himself, the foundation is very important to Brian, so he was noticably moved by Daniel's presentation. It was great to see Sandstrom's work have much a significant impact on someone's life.

As if all of this wasn't enough for me, Jack also gave me a project of my own to work on. Sandstrom had just been contacted by a company that produced flavored water, which was looking to recreate their brand. I listened in on a conference call between Jack and a representative from the company as Jack pitched Sandstrom's services to the representative. After the call, Jack assinged me the duty of doing some primary research for this project. I was to go to Whole Foods and catalogue all of the different brands of flavored water and then analyze each products brand positioning. Attatched to this blog post is what I came up with. 

Last week was great at Sandstrom and now I'm back looking forward to another exciting couple of days.

Files: 

Flavored Water.pdf