Sondra Adams
Senior Supervisor, Graphic Design
Company Name: Pfizer
My soon-to-end (we’re getting outsourced) five-plus years in-house at Pfizer headquarters were preceded by design staff positions at Vignelli Associates and various NYC corporate identity firms, such as Anspach Grossman Portugal (now Enterprise) and Siegel & Gale. At Siegel & Gale, while designing a brand book for Harley-Davidson, I started to think about going in-house (many of the Harley staff rode their “bikes” to work, Milwaukee winters permitting. It looked like fun.) Freelance assignments included using really large type in exhibition work at the Museum of Natural History, as well as work for American Express, Donovan and Greene, and Interbrand. I graduated with honors from the University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art) with a BFA in Graphic Design.
-
What is the best thing about working in-house?
The perceived stability; the hours (can I say that?!); being “embedded” in a company; the discount on Lubriderm.
-
What types of projects does your department do?
Health education literature, consumer brochures on disease prevention and management, speaker trainer kits, websites, health services research reports, fancy Board of Directors meeting collateral, binders, posters, flyers.
-
What keeps you motivated and inspired in your job?
Recognition from my clients.
-
What do you consider the biggest success of your in-house career?
Retaining and developing the relationship with our department’s two key clients, and getting work that would have otherwise gone to an agency.
-
What are you currently reading, watching and listening to?
Reading: Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, by Temple Grandin
Watching: The Sopranos
Listening: Brian Eno/John Cale: Wrong Way Up