Welcome to Tart. This podcast is for young creatives looking to hear experience, stories, tips, and all things associated with art design.

For the first episode of Tart, I have a short conversation with senior Temple student, Ally DeVita. At Temple, she is the creative director at Allotrope agency and has had huge career success within art direction. In this episode we talk about her creative origins and how she came to establish her personal creative achievements.

Rachel: Did you know the career path you wanted to follow when you were young?

Ally: No, I had no idea and sort of still don’t. I knew I wanted to do something creative but didn't know exactly what that quite was. I knew I didn’t want to sit behind a desk and do clerical work. That was my vision of what adults did.

R: Were you decided on a major as a senior in high school?

A: I was decided when I was a senior. I had a cousin who did this same program at Temple. Advertising seemed like something that would offer me a lot of different avenues. I didn’t have to just stick with one this with advertising, that’s why it was so appealing to me because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. This gave me the chance to figure it out along the way. I knew going into freshman year I would be on the art direction track.

R: Do you feel your family or schooling system supported your goals and passions within art direction and advertising?

A: Senior year of high school, having taken no art classes prior, signed up for AP art. I really didn’t think I was ready. The teacher told me “No, no, no, you’re fine. People come into AP Art without any kind of portfolio”. I was making mostly digital stuff, but my teacher was more a traditional artists. So, she really know what to do with me. She didn't favor me because I wasn’t a traditional artist. My mom is in the business world, corporate America. She thought, “My daughter is going to be a starving artist, she’s not going to make any money”. But I told her I’m going to be okay, they tell me I’m going to have a job out of college. But she is supportive. She wants me to be happy with what I’m doing. I think it’s a little scary for her that she doesn’t get what I do.

R: I was originally in Marketing here at Temple and my freshman year I realized this was not going to work out because I’ve always wanted to be creative. I feel like this is a really good track to be in, but it does incorporate some business to a degree.

A: It’s a good mix. I looked at a lot of graphic design programs and a main argument I was told for this specific major was that we would get the business side of it, we would understand that kind of scenario. Whereas in graphic design, you might not get that. That’s part of the reason I chose advertising.

R: Are you minoring in anything?

A: I’m minoring in Digital Media Technologies. It’s a mashup between CIS and MSP. So it’s partnering with the engineering school. Half the classes, I will warn you, are coding and that was hard.

R: Do you have any really crucial tips about getting your personal work out there to land your first important internship or job?

A: I would talk to multiple professors outside of what class you’re taking. So, right now I’m talking to Tracy, who I’ve only ever had for Intro to Design Tools. I reached out to her and asked her to look over all my stuff and give me feedback. It’s really good if more professors know you. I would talk to your friends. Recently, I had a friend whose dance team needed photography work for team pictures. So I did that over the weekend just through word of mouth. Connect with other students, like if you have copywriting friends who need help with art direction. If they know someone else who needs work, then you have that relationship and they can talk about you.