On May 5th, I attended a virtual discussion provided by Syracuse University's Fashion Milestone. Elizabeth Coburn, the speaker, is a junior designer at the coveted fashion magazine Teen Vogue. Coburn also graduated from Syracuse University in 2019 with a major in communications design. During college, she was an active member of University Union and served as the design director and the art director. Before working at Teen Vogue, Elizabeth interned at Refinery29 as a Design Intern. She credits her time here for solidifying her belief that design is what she wanted to do as her profession!
Elizabeth has a vital role at Teen Vogue. She works in a small art team that consists of her and two other design staff. She works on graphics to promote events, commissions illustrators for the magazine and Instagram posts. Elizabeth also helps produce photoshoots for the magazine. In the world of fashion, having solid and well-designed social media posts is exceptionally crucial. Elizabeth and her work are essential to the branding of Teen Vogue and the face that it puts on for the public. She discussed how it takes a lot of time to find the perfect design for an Instagram post or the perfect photo to cover an article on the website! She needs to commission people who understand how to tell stories through art and understand and respect the "vibe" of Teen Vogue.
While Elizabeth does not work in public relations, she is still in the realm of communications! Her job consists of a lot of networking and working with clients to produce content used as part of the magazine's public persona. Teen Vogue is a household name, and its brand and image must stay consistent. In public relations, our job is to maintain a favorable impression of our clients. My favorite definition of public relations is from PRSA, stating, "Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." In design, their job is to maintain a consistent image and project that to their publics. Teen Vogue readers are consuming articles that interest them, but what will pull them in is the illustrations and eye-catching photography. Elizabeth has to commission illustrators to portray stories that are consistent with the image of Teen Vogue.
The magazine, which is online-only, has a religious following and a lot of demand. Elizabeth works with an extensive group of readers, for example, the magazine received a total of 5,500,000 visits to their website in April alone and has an astonishing 3.3 million followers on Instagram. This relates to public relations as Elizabeth is one of the three people who choose what those millions of readers get to see on the Teen Vogue socials and website! If she does not remain consistent, then the whole aesthetic and, "relationship," with the public will be damaged. Elizabeth wants to continue her employment at Teen Vogue and hopes to move up the ranks and explore all that design has to offer!
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