Creig Northrop
Designing for the Number One Realtor in the Nation at age 17
The foundation of my career.
Creig Northrop was the tallest (7ft), scariest, most intimidating boss for my shy, scrawny, high school self. This job set the tone of my career and taught me so many lessons that built the pathway for my work ethic and demeanor.
Lessons Learned.
You will succeed.
Practice makes perfect. It’s worth it to work the extra hours to get the design just right. Don’t give up when it gets hard. Push through when something doesn’t feel there yet, and improve it until the perfectionist in you is satisfied.
Smart people don’t always know what they’re doing.
Speak up if you have an idea, new process, efficiency plan, etc that is better than your superior’s idea. They will appreciate it. In business we’re all in it together, often figuring out the best way forward as we go. The plan is flexible and ripe for new proposals.
Age is only a number.
I often faced imposter syndrome at my young age, and wondered why higher ups were listening to my ideas, printing my work in large new publications, and using my designs as templates for years to follow. Turns out experience and skill level matters more than how old you are.
Keep growing.
When a new project or technology arises, don’t have fear that it is different than something you have done in the past. Embrace the opportunity to learn new skills, educate yourself on the latest tools and technologies. Not knowing the answer is okay, but you better be prepared to research the solution. Never stop learning.
Templates used for years to come.
Unknown to me, many of my designs would be used as campaign templates for years to come. I learned quickly that what made these examples successful was the design deviation due to change of audience. A lower income advertisement should look and feel very different than a luxury multi-million dollar property feature, and a newspaper full-page advertisement should be laid out differently than a magazine advertisement.
Designed the new Creig Northrop business cards as a template for the remainder of employees, and worked with the printer to ensure print specs were accurate.
Brochure design for the extraordinary services, luxury side of the real estate team.
Proud of the designs.
My print collateral was published in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Howard County Times, The Carroll County Times, The Gazette, Homes and Land Magazine, Real Estate Magazine, The Montgomery County Magazine, The Howard County Magazine etc, to name a few. To see my designs printed in these large publications, as a young designer, made me awe-struck. It gave me confidence that this was the profession I wanted to pursue as my career and I am forever thankful for this job experience.
"I can't tell you how sad I am that you had to leave The Creig Northrop Team and go to college! I wish you could have stayed with us forever. I knew from the moment I saw your very impressive resume, as a junior in high school, that you were driven, ambitious and on top of your studies and extracurricular activities. You are also very poised and professional. I think some people may be unsure of your talents because of your quiet demeanor, but you are a brilliant graphic artist and have an incredible eye. Not only do you possess advanced technical design skills, but you were also able to execute a marketing concept from scratch based on a few short ideas or visions that I had, which I found extremely helpful. So many times, I would give you a design project with little instruction, and within half an hour, you would turn around exactly what I was envisioning. I have worked with professional marketing companies, and paid hundreds of dollars, for the level of service you, as a young intern, were able to provide to us. I thoroughly enjoyed having you work in our marketing department. You created ads and campaigns that I am sure we are going to use, reuse, tweak, edit, and publish again and again in the future. I have absolutely no doubt you will be very successful in your chosen career in the future.
Your work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Howard County Times, postcards, direct mail, company brochures, and international websites. I do hope you keep in touch. If you are interested in working over holidays or breaks, be sure to contact me. I can always use your design skills!
As I mentioned, if I can be a reference for you during your job search, or if you need anything in the future, please don't hesitate to call."
— Laura Reese, Director of Marketing, The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.