Brendan Murphy Symposium

Brendan Murphy

Brendan Murphy, a senior partner from Lippincott design firm in New York came to Pittsburg State University to speak to us students about how he has made it where he is now. Brendan was an athlete that became injured and began to focus more on his scholastic work than he had prior to his injury. Brendan had said that until his injury he never focused on school like he did after. It was then that he caught my attention, and I was intrigued by his story, because I shared so many similarities with him. He shared his story, accomplishments, and some of the work he has done with us.

I felt like I related to Brendan, having been an injured college athlete myself. I could relate in a big way with what he was saying about how he paid more attention to his grades after his days of being an athlete came to a halt. I also connected with him when he said he came from little to no money, as I also do. He mentioned that this was his major motivation, because of that he worked extremely hard so that he could better himself. It was very inspiring to see this, and to know that at one point he was in the same shoes that I am in.

Aside from his story, I also learned a few things while I was in there. Brendan touched on an area for branding that I have never heard of before that he referred to as sensory branding. Sensory branding, as he said, was not only seeing a company and identifying them by their logo and such, but associating a sound DNA, and/or smell with the branding as well. I thought this was very interesting, as I had never thought of this before. I also learned that in the real world, you will crank out typically 300-3,000 Identity designs before you typically deploy them to the client. I thought this was insane, yet he assured that it was very common.

In closing, Brendan was an inspiration to me once I realized that his story was so close to mine. He was a very great person to relate to, and I personally feel that some of the things he shared will be things that will have to be addressed in the future such as sensory branding, which was something that I did not already know about. Lastly, how he was motivated, really set in with me in a way that someone could not relate to unless you came from a background of little or no money like he or I have.

Photo credit:
"PSU Honors Outstanding Alumni - News Story - Pittsburg State University." Pittsburg State University: Home of the PSU Gorillas! - Pittsburg, KS. 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.pittstate.edu/press-media/detail.dot?id=248849>.