[oterns_get_title]

• Make something cool, meaty, beautiful using only a phone.
• Post it online somewhere we can see it (YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, etc.).
• Email the web link to olsonoterns@oco.com.
• Submit your resume and cover letter to www.oco.com/careers.
• Apply by April 15, 2011.

Check back to see featured entries and for feedback on your submission. The best entrants will be called back for interviews and offered O-ternships. We look forward to seeing your ideas.

Best of luck.

[oterns_submit_btn href="mailto:olsonoterns@oco.com" text="Submit your creation."]

Details:
Assignment due: 4/15
Dates of O-ternship: 6/6–9/2
Paid: $12/hr
No phone calls
PDFs of portfolio samples, please

Our 2011 O-tern Submissions

Meredith Abbot

Jenna Weichmann

Andrea Thelen

Carl Schaefer

Connor Champley

Sara Nitz

Scott Ray

Kegan Stewart

Dan Olson

Drew Kleiner

Tessa Walter

Blake Fitzgerald

Jenny Zanatta

Jason Ma

Katie Blake

Lucy Steinmann

Pete O’Neill

Megan Baxter

Aaron Finke

Alison Eiler

Amanda Daus

Amanda Underwood

Andy Bissonnette

Annika Nynas

Brian Hildman

Calla Nassif

Callie Henderson

Shaina Brassard

Abigail Bartlett

Andrew Oehmke

Andria Kelzenberg

Anthony Cappetta

Arthur Cohen

Austen Adriaens

Bethany Hall & Thomas Kordonowy

Brent Haglund

Brian Piechoski

Chad Freund

Chris Hill

Chris Prestemon

Christine Grabowski

Clayton Colburn

Daniel Vaneps

Danielle Olson

Diane Yang

Jaclyn Novak

Jason Loeffler

Jenna Whitcomb

Jessica Eikos

Joshua Brand

Justin Russell

Kali Huebner

Elizabeth Boeckman

Emily Schwartz

Greg Johnson

Heather Pallas

James Michels

Jason Tebbe

Joe Krause

Joni Duerme

Josiah Snyder

Karen Melton

Kelsey Gullickson

Kelly Grahn

Kelsey Munson

Kelsey Oseid

Leah Sands

Maria Freund

Matt Pabich

Matthew Connell

Meghan Sullivan

Meher Khan

Melissa Bartz

Retta Draper

Rob Thompson

Sara Birkholz

Taylor Fagerburg

TJ Riverso

Kelli O’Keffe

Kelsey Gergen

Laura Hoeft

Laura Hystead

Honggiao Lu

Matt Scharenbroich

Michael Berg

Michele Morales

Michelle Hagen

Morgan Goetz

Natalie Devine

Nicholas Waldman

Noelle Bullion

Rahul Juyal

Sarah Even

Sarah Lunde

Sergio Monterrubio

Sohail Akhavein

Tatiana Craine

Ted Birt

Timothy Swenson

Tracy Anderson

Troy Zirbes

Food in my social circles from Sonja Rostad on Vimeo.

When I think about social circles, I think about the different events in each circle and how food is a common element. The food we eat in our social circles is different depending on which circle we are in at the time. 

Here is a link to the video I made to illustrate my concept. (I apologize for the technical issues but my video was a bit big to upload onto wordpress). 

Thanks!

O-Term Application from Kate Tolmie on Vimeo.

My name is Christopher and I have spent the better part of my life in pursuit of the rarest social circles this planet has to offer.  I have slogged through the densest jungles of Mallamoorana in search of the Bitϑaru, a people who communicate solely through vigorous and vexing movements of their eyes.  Deep within the Arctic Circle I espied the elusive Ťavѩ and watched in rapture for hours as they poked one another with icicles in a befriending ceremony never before seen by outsider eyes.

In my travels I have come across people who communicate with animals, ferns, stars, and even the soil of the earth.  And yet I believe even these most exotic communications pale in comparison to the coming age of digital sociality.  From Minneapolis to Marrakech, Neath to Niigata, people are joining social circles for which the limitations of proximity and the ready availability of icicles no longer apply.

They poke, friend, chat, tweet, and follow.  They get linked in, blogged about, hung up on, and stabbed in the back by level 5 wizards they totally thought were their friends but were, in the end, only using them to get to a stash of magic crystals.  They struggle to decipher texts, determine whether friends are JK or entirely serious.  IYKWIM.  They flounder and accidentally Reply All.  They apologize profusely in wall posts.  And through it all they share ideas, forge friendships, commit facebook faux pas, but forge on.

I have spent my life as an adventurer.  And now I should like to take my adventure from the tundras and highlands to the vast electronic plains, exchange my mud-caked boots for a keyboard.  As a copy O-Tern at Olson I hope to use words and ideas to clear paths connecting people to the things, companies, and people that excite them, much like I once blazed trails through the dense underbrush of Karamanduro and Pikinanuhara.

But before I trade my machete and travel adventure beard for metaphors and alliteration, I offer you these two items of film I have gathered in my travels; the strangest social circles I have ever had the pleasure of observing:

Item 1 -

When asked this question, I am forced to consider two ideas:

(1) Is shape is irrelevant? Can trapezoids be social too?

(2) Facebook, Mixi, CyWorld, XiaoNei, StudyVZ, etc. are just manifestations of social networks that allow us to digitally visualize and interact via the internet. They are not themselves social circles. They are social appendages.

Concrete objects need not mingle.
Abstract Ideas mingle simply by occupying the same space. I feed my mind with new memes everyday which allows me to include new thoughts and ideas in my earlier hypothesis or theories about the world. All things social are at their base, abstract. This is why advertising has the potential to be so infectious.

The perfect circle, unlike a square has no edged walls up to obstruct the new or different. When we learn of new products or services from friends, those in our social circles, we lose our walls that obstruct the novel. This is comfortable anyway, as mental blocks tend to be undesired. Social circle is a natural phrase for expressing this free mingling of ideas and influence. This is how I think of and in social circles. I seek the mingling of ideas and influence.

Abdurrahman_OLSON_SocialCircles
(The text to the video is below.)
Two Haiku & Spoken Word

Social thought? Its rise
unclouds the mind,
spreads ideas,
we Spring to find

Bind, Grind, wring and
Unwind thoughts, feelings and
All that mushy stuff for friends and
enemies there’s only inclusion and
A circle has no edge, no exclusion and
Not but, but And, and

So—cial Circles? rise
shine sway on all
minds, ears, and eyes
they find, Shine On
By the way the song in the background is an old Okinawan (Japanese Folk song) funked up with non-traditional instruments.

The internet has allowed people to share stuff in new ways. Some of them are really cool! But it would be a mistake to forget about the people who have not embraced social networking. Their social circles still exist, mostly offline. They participate in them at work, baseball games, church, and the neighborhood bar.

It’s time for some hypothetical statistical evidence. We ask a perfect random sample of Facebook users the following questions:

1. Have you ever purchased a product because a Facebook friend became a fan of it?
2. Have you ever purchased a product after having it recommended by a member of one of your offline social circles?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the second question garners far more yes answers. Don’t get me wrong, social networking is important to understand and utilize. But it’s just one way in which people communicate in social circles. When done well, communicating through these channels can be very effective. OLSON’s work is proof of that.

Alright, rant over. How do I think in social circles? I just launched a t-shirt line called COLLECTION. We don’t have any money for ads. We have some really cool shirts. We’re relying on social circles to drive sales. Here’s an example of how:

Our shirts feature artwork that is bold and sometimes provocative. They are produced in limited quantities and priced from $30-$40. Perfect for liberal, fashion-conscious young adults who pride themselves on their good taste. To reach these people, we’re using a tried and truly annoying tactic: handing out literature. But not just anywhere– only outside select indie rock concerts in Minneapolis. And our literature isn’t something people expect to be handed. It’s actually vintage Minnesota Twins cards circa 1980s. The real deal. On the back is a sticker with our web site (www.collection.tc) and nothing to indicate what we do.

I think curiosity will get the better of most people. Many will go to the site just to see what it’s about. Some might not even wait until they get home, considering the social circles we’re targeting have a disproportionately high number of iPhone owners. We’ve made our site mobile browser-friendly specifically for them. The website is interesting. We’ve put the products in an unusual context. It delivers an experience that is unique to the product category.

The more scarce a product, the more likely it gets talked about once one person in a social circle owns it. Our shirts are individually numbered. Some are limited to only 19 prints. When you are one of very few people in the world who have something cool, it’s hard not to talk about it. With that in mind, we’re also sending out shirts to handpicked fashion bloggers. Getting these clothing evangelists excited about our products is just another way to cost effectively promote our brand by thinking in social circles.