Wait, WHAT?!? The past lives of SLS

Rock bands, lawnmowers, the Miss America pageant, and… the New England Patriots? At first glance, none of these things have anything in common, but if you look a little closer, you’ll find something tying them all together—SLS!

To become the creative experts that fuel our business, team members had to learn from a variety of job opportunities. These experiences run the gamut of creative design, technical know-how, and networking, resulting in a squad with the problem-solving skills (and fun stories) we apply every day for every project.

But how well do you know our team? Take a look at the list below and see if you can match the unique job or project with the right SLS team member. Be sure to submit your answers to read a few of our favorite stories from these blasts from the past. And, as if curiosity about our team wasn’t incentive enough, the first five people to submit the correct answers will receive a free SLS mobile phone stand!

UNIQUE JOB

Drew schematics for a lawn mower parts company
Played guitar and sang vocals in a rock band called Not My Cello
Designed a book on the New England Patriots
At various times worked as a locksmith, bartender, sound engineer, and in a flower shop
Worked as a tutor for every type of math—even calculus
Decorated ice cream cakes at Baskin Robbins
Proofread the English in a Chinese-language business magazine
Doubled as a fashion assistant/runner for celebrity stylist Mark-Alan Harmon
Moderated focus groups on men aged 18–35 and their perspiration and body odor issues for Old Spice, understanding frozen pizza-purchasing habits for DiGiorno and Tombstone, and the bowel habits of people 50+ for Metamucil
Proofread the layout of the Turkish Daily News, a weekly newspaper that used British English
Shot production stills of the Chicago Bears’ defensive line as part of a Chicagoland Chevrolet Dealer Group commercial while a junior art director
Designed wedding invitations and performed with their band Water for Wine
Top graphic design talent at a Fortune 500 company—and somehow ended up being the “Mac guru” since IT only knew PCs
Created a DIY centerpiece decoration featuring large red wax lips on sticks for Miss America party ideas sponsored by Keebler

SLS EMPLOYEE

Tanya
Grogg
Brian
Christine
Amy
Viorel
Chris
Melissa
Jennie
June
Kent
Diane
James
Kelsey

ANSWERS

It was … Melissa! She drew so many schematics, she could tell you precise measurements!
It was … Kent! And, yes, they were as terrible as you are imagining.
It was … Chris! He flew to Massachusetts and got to handpick items from the Patriots’ collection of historic helmets, uniforms, cleats, etc. for the photoshoot.
It was … James! He also worked as a pharmacy technician and as a video store clerk, manager, and installer. So many jobs…
It was … Viorel!
It was … Jennie! Jennie also worked at a jewelry counter and an administrative assistant at a school district.
It was … Kelsey! She wrote some restaurant reviews, which required her to go out and eat some delicious food.
It was … Christine!
It was … Amy! Before the computer age, she’ d scour encyclopedia-sized volumes of data tables to conduct her analytics.
It was … Tanya! This job was part of her work-study summer in college while in Turkey. See below for the full story!
It was … Grogg! He still has the photos from this project! See below for the full story!
It was … June! She even designed custom wedding stationary for at least one bride.
It was … Brian!
It was … Diane! She thought she had a one-and-done situation in creating those elaborate centerpieces. “Keebler liked them so much, I had to make one for each of the 50 contestants to take along on the media tour!” the content strategist says.

BONUS CONTENT FOR SUBMITTING QUIZ:

Hopefully, you learned a little more about our team after that quiz. We certainly learned more about each other while putting this quiz together. Here are a couple of our favorite stories.

Our creative director, Grogg, not only has experience in graphic design but in a unique job with ties to his Indiana roots: corn detasseling! “All summer, I’d be pulling these tassels from the tops of corn stalks from a platform attached to a tractor,” he says. “It was not easy and was especially hard if the tractor got stuck in mud.”

And what about that photo shoot with the Chicago Bears? “I decided to go into the makeup room where Wilber Marshall was getting some face powder put on,” Grogg recalls. “Let’s just say he wasn’t happy about it. Richard Dent told me not to worry, but I’m still afraid Wilber will show up at my door someday!”

Perhaps the most challenging job on this list is Tanya’s turn as the proofreader at the Turkish Daily News. Most of the reporters were bilingual, but proofreading was still a challenge—especially since the two managing editors came from different grammatic backgrounds. “One was British, and the other was American, and they would battle it out as to which version of English we should use,” says Tanya, adding that British English won out. “Things still weren’t entirely cleared up for me because the two Turkish guys doing the layout and paste up didn’t speak a lick of any type of English and would break words awkwardly on the page. I had to be able to communicate with them to tell them what to fix, so I had to learn some Turkish pretty quickly!”