Creative Director Panel @ FIT!

This afternoon FIT was lucky enough to host a panel discussion and Q&A with some of the industry's brightest and most creative minds! Moderated by Joshua Williams, Adjunct Professor in FIT's School of Art & Design, the panel included the likes of:

• Joe Zee, Creative Director of Elle Magazine and is an FIT Alumni!
• Andrea Linett, Creative Director at eBay Fashion, and the founding Creative Director at Lucky Magazine.
• Liza Deyrmenjian, Founder & CEO of Afingo.com, an up-and-coming industry networking site.

Fantastic Discussion!

The paths of these industry players may or may not be exactly what you think they would be!...

• To start things off Andrea Linett spoke about her past at Sassy Magazine, which folded but still gave her the experience to do the job she does today. At Sassy's she was responsible for A LOT, being a start up she was doing the job of the editor, writer, creative team, and in as many different kinds of meetings imaginable! She then was able to use that information to impress Conde Nast, who hired her on the spot. After a quick job at Conde Nast, she left that job to work on a secret project, which turned out to be Lucky Magazine, "It was a magazine about shopping," says Linett. Her creative director position at Lucky led to writing two books for the magazine, and she is now the Fashion Director at eBay, lifting their fashion experience and giving shoppers a more beautiful experience. Bringing a little Lucky to eBay!

• Liza Deyrmenjian's advice reminded me of things I've heard from plenty of executives: continue getting fired! Liza gave wonderful advice on her many projects that went from positions in the art and film field to having her own manufacturing factory in Toronto. Eventually her break came when a designer asked her to product swimsuit samples for them, she accepted and instantly turned her small factory into a large manufacturing project and became an expert at sourcing, selling that off and another large manufacturing project at age 34. Now with all the knowledge she's had the designers who have reached out to her she has started her own educational program and networking site, Afingo.com, a site dedicated to connection designers to sourcing and manufacturing people that can meet the designer's specific needs, "A Match.com for sourcing," is how she described it. Genius idea!

• Finally FIT Alumni, Joe Zee, actually admitted to coming unprepared, "the ultimate nightmare," Zee joked! Joe Zee however has a very inspiration story, "No is a boundary you set for yourself," Zee stated as describing his rise to the Creative Director position at Elle. When Zee began at FIT he was 19, and had dreamed of fashion for as long as he could remember. Eventually he heard about the school newspaper, knows as Revelations, at the time. Zee was one of two people who was interested in doing it, when wanting to completely redesign the newspaper though, he became the ONLY one willing to work on it! So W27 was born as a result of Zee's weekends away writing, editing, and shooting for the newspaper along with anyone he could get to help. When graduating he sent out 16 resumes along with copies of the newspaper, and got 15 job interviews. He was immediately hired at Allure Magazine. From there Zee took on projects such as working for Details Magazine, transforming and making W Magazine successful, and then taking Elle to the #1 fashion publication, beating out Vogue. In all that Zee does his #1 lesson was to NEVER take no for an answer!!

Over all the 1 hour Town Hall style meeting was fantastic, the 3 stayed afterwards to answer any questions students may have had and to receive feedback. Personally, I stayed to introduce myself to Liza, and am one step closer to an internship.

A special thank you to Joe Zee for all the free issues of Elle students received, afterward!

Stay updated with The Society