Friday, August 14, 2009

Notes from a Summer Intern

Surprise flowers, sunlight, and ice cream cake. Perhaps those words sound like they belong to a summer party, but it’s a combination of life at Crossover Graphics this week. It’s been a rather hectic week, but we’ve had some fun moments. It’s my last day at Crossover as an intern and I’m going to miss it here.

Crossover is continuing to grow at warp speed. At the beginning of the summer, there were two employees, and now we’ve filled up every space in our office and there are still more employees joining us soon! However, with a company growing as fast as ours, we knew it would be crazy (or at least we were warned)!

At the beginning of the week, we received a visit from one of Crossover’s partners who is soon to be employed at Crossover. (Little teaser details: he used to work around F-18s and he currently coaches a semi-pro football team. Stay tuned for more details about our soon-to-be new employee!) Even though he only spent a day with us, he emailed Stephanie, our CEO, with nicknames for all of us based on our personalities. It was funny how he accurately described our personalities even though he was only here for a short time.

Yesterday, Sarah, one of our designers, received a surprise visit from her fiancé. He walked in carrying a bouquet of summer wildflowers that looked professionally arranged. But no, he had actually gotten up early to pick the flowers from the garden and arrange them himself. Sarah was beaming for the rest of the day.

As of late, Kate, Sarah, and I discovered how much we like natural lighting. We have four big windows in our office, so we keep the lights off all day unless it’s absolutely thunderstorm pitch black outside. Sunlight is so much prettier and calming compared to the harsh fluorescent lights. (And as an extra bonus, we’re cutting down the electricity bills.)

Since today is my last day as a summer intern at Crossover, Stephanie arranged a surprise lunch with sub sandwiches, chips, cheesy dip, and homemade ice cream cake (Sarah’s family recipe). So, that was fun.

I am going to miss working at Crossover on a day-to-day basis. It’s the little things that make a job meaningful. I’ve learned so much being here, things such as:

-- “Rockstar” is an amazing word and some of the highest praise you can give a person
-- Just because it’s not really funny doesn’t mean you can’t laugh about it
-- Coffee and sticky notes are great ways to encourage others
-- Mac computers make crunchy sounds when you delete items from your trash can. It makes me happy.
-- Mac computers have icons that bounce when they want attention (and it annoys me so much that I must immediately stop and squash the icon)
-- There are a million social media sites and I am convinced they spontaneously generate because I keep hearing about new sites
-- If it’s electronic, it will break
-- Sometimes your best work is produced when you have to use pen and paper because the computer is sulking and refuses to unfreeze
-- CEOs and co-workers can become your friends
-- Sticky notes are some of the best inventions ever
-- Filling up a notebook with press releases and other stories you’ve written is pretty fun
-- Dreams aren’t so impossible

Probably the reason why I liked working for Crossover so much is because 1) the people here have become friends, and 2) they haven’t forgotten how to dream. One of Crossover’s goals is that the company feel like family -- and it does. We all work really well together and we know that we can approach even the executives whenever we need something. Secondly, especially with the economy now, many of the things Crossover wants to do seem absolutely crazy. Yet, Crossover is growing beyond what many people thought was possible. Yes, pursuing dreams is never “safe,” but it’s an adventure and we’re going to fly because that’s where God is leading us.

--Ashley High is a PR Intern at Crossover Graphics (www.crossovergraphics.com)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Twitter Contest - Leave a Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day

It’s summer and fresh vegetables abound. But as much I as love vegetables, when your significant other or mother serves them with every meal, it can get old. You’ve resorted to smashing your peas under your plate, flushing your brussel sprouts down the toilet, or slipping your cauliflower into the trash can upstairs. But have you tried leaving your zucchini on your neighbor’s porch?

In fact, leaving zucchini on your neighbor’s porch was such a hit that it became a holiday that is observed on August 8th. In order to celebrate this holiday, those of us at Crossover Graphics decided to put a spin on leaving zucchini on our neighbor’s porches. And what could be a better way to do this than to give you a chance to win some chocolate zucchini bread? It tastes like chocolate cake, only better.

We hope you have a happy Leave-a-Zucchini-on-Your-Neighbor’s-Porch-Day!

Entering the Contest - Twitter Users

1. Follow @crossover09 on Twitter

2. Tweet this:



I am celebrating Leave a Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Day by entering the @crossover09 contest to win food http://bit.ly/tzucchiniday



3. Two randomly-selected winners will receive:
--A loaf of yummy chocolate zucchini bread. It’ll pretty much be amazing.
--The satisfaction of winning and a good reason to do a victory dance

Remember to follow @crossover09 on Twitter once you’ve tweeted the message so we can direct message you to get your information. Otherwise we will have to eat your prize - our office has a lot of girls and we like chocolate.



The contest ends Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 11:59:59 PM, Central Time (US).

If you have any other questions about the contest, email us at socialnetworking@crossovergraphics.com

FAQs:

Q: Can I tweet more than once?

A: Sorry, no.

Q: Can I enter if I don’t use Twitter?

A: You can spend a few minutes creating a Twitter account, and then following to the instructions at the top of this post. (Or you can enter via your Facebook account. See the instructions at http://bit.ly/fbzucchiniday



Q: How will I know if I win?

A: If you have been randomly picked as the winner, we’ll send you a direct message via Twitter. Make sure you’ve followed @crossover09 so we can message you.


Winners will be announced by noon (Central Time) on Monday, August 10th.

Q: Can I enter with both my Facebook and Twitter accounts?
A: Yes, you can. You can only win with one account, but entering with both increases your chances of winning.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Foreign Languages and Life at Crossover Graphics

Bonjour, ami. Hola, amiga. привет, друг (privet druk). As of late, we’ve been starting off our mornings speaking in languages we pretend to know. Kate, the marketing director, and Lindsey, the receptionist, chatter in the French they learned in elementary school and high school. But pretty soon, they’re asking each other to repeat words. Sarah, a graphic designer, cheerily throws in “¿Cómo estás?” (how are you?), the only Spanish she remembers. She is confused because the “Spanish” Lindsey and Kate are speaking seems quite unfamiliar. And then I might throw in some Russian just for the fun of it - “simpatichenee utka?” (“cute duck,” anyone?)

Over the last few weeks, life at Crossover Graphics has continued to get busier. With the establishment of Crossover’s new division, CGP Marketing & Advertising, and the addition of new employees from Crossover’s engagement with another adversing firm, work shows no signs of slowing down. However, we are very excited about the new challenges and opportunities ahead.

We’ve recently rearranged offices in order to fit everyone. A fun addition to our office space is a small conference room complete with a coffee maker and different flavors of latte syrup. Yum!

Last Friday, our office received a visit from Jaycee, Crossover’s mascot. The CEO’s 10-year-old daughter, Desiree Tillman, was in the office and wanted to try out the Jaycee costume. She had fun clomping around in the oversized costume, shaking people’s hands, and handing out pictures she had drawn for everyone.

Yes, life continues to be busy, but it are those little moments that make it all worthwhile. It’s hearing stories about the amazing accomplishments of ministries and businesses we work with; it’s laughing hysterically at a unintended pun that’s really not that funny; it’s praying together when others are hurting; it’s doing life together. And that, mon ami, es magnífico in whatever language you speak.

--Ashley High is a PR Intern at Crossover Graphics (www.crossovergraphics.com)