News & Events
Not 'Just Another Pretty Face,' City Tech's Nick Roman Parlays College Subway Ad Campaign into Bright Future
When he rides the subways these days, Nick Roman can often be seen looking upward, smiling and talking to himself. Not to worry, the City Tech graduating senior is perfectly sane; he is looking at subway ads for the college that he created and telling himself how much he has to be grateful for.
Roman, who is graduating near the top of his class with a 3.86 (out of 4.0) grade point average and was a candidate for valedictorian, took a novel approach to the subway ad campaign that resonated with the City Tech administration. "I was determined to go beyond cliché thoughts and pictures -- I couldn't stand to see another pretty face selling a whole college or the vague possibilities of a promising future," he says.
Instead, each ad highlights a different academic department, and contains an attention-getting phrase commonly used in a related profession as well as the tagline, "We'll help you speak the language." For architectural technology, for example, the catchy lingo is "flying buttress." "Subpoena duces tecum" appears in the ad for the law and paralegal studies department. Graphics on both sides of the text in the four ads he created provide visual clues as to what the phrases mean.
Using student-designed advertising is not new for City Tech, which often takes advantage of the creativity of its talented students. An earlier, successful subway campaign was designed by Lukas Antkiewicz, currently a junior at the College.
Stephen M. Soiffer, assistant to the president for institutional advancement at City Tech, supervised Roman while he worked on the campaign. According to him, "Nick represents the best of this college. He has excellent design skills that will serve him well in his career. But he also has benefitted from the broad, general education we insist on, allowing him to come up with the text appropriate to the several professional areas featured in the campaign as well as the graphic images. I wasn't surprised when the advertising giant CBS Outdoor (formerly Viacom Outdoor) asked for a copy of his résumé; they know talent when they see it."
Having had his concept chosen from more than one hundred submissions, Roman, a communication design major, spent last summer developing the advertising campaign and was paid for his work. Soon after, he began getting freelance assignments from The City University's (CUNY) central administration as well as from Lehman, which like City Tech, is a CUNY senior college. One thing led to another, and the 21-year-old landed a full-time job as assistant to the art director at CBS Outdoor.
"I came to City Tech because it offered courses in 3D animation, and now I'm going to be using what I learned to help create a spectacular sign to be displayed in Times Square, at the corner of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, one of the most traveled thoroughfares in the world," he says. He hopes eventually to work his way up to art director.
"I am also helping to promote new technologies that are revolutionizing advertising, such as interactive projection systems and lighting embedded in flexible, thin material that can be put on the backs of chairs in stadiums or on cylindrical columns on walls, among other applications."
Roman stresses the importance of having confidence in one's abilities and being open to opportunities when they present themselves. "City Tech opened a door for me that has led to so many others. I can't thank the College's faculty and administration enough; they have helped so many of us go on to successful, productive careers and lives."
While a student at City Tech, Roman often spent time tutoring classmates, helping them strengthen their design skills or understand the computer applications they were learning in class. Almost every day, he indulged in one of his loves -- playing handball. His mastery of the sport garnered him the Phil Fuchs College Scholarship, for which he designed a brochure and video describing the valuable lessons handball had taught him.
"It has been through a lot of hard work and practice that I have become a good player," he says. "The sport has taught me to focus on what I'm doing and take one step at a time, yet plan ahead."
Things didn't always go so smoothly for Roman, whose grandparents were born in Puerto Rico. He grew up in the Carver Projects in East Harlem, also known as El Barrio, to a stay-at-home mom and a computer technician dad. While the neighborhood has improved in recent years, there were many nights that he was kept awake by gunshots and people screaming in the streets.
A highlight of his life when he was a child were the trips he, his parents, his older brother and his younger sister would make to FAO Schwartz. "We would go there and my parents would videotape us playing with all the toys in the store," he remembers. "FAO Schwartz was a playground for us, not a place to shop."
When he was a student at Brooklyn Tech High School, he majored in biomedical technology at the suggestion of his mother, who advised him to "get good grades, get a good job and make money. That way, you can buy yourself a house and get out of the projects."
But Roman, who remains very close to his family, had to find his own path, what he calls his passion. "Money is necessary to create a type of stability, but, similar to the reason why I switched my major from bio-med to graphic design, I am motivated by passion," he explains. "When you put your heart into things, you are bound to be successful."
He adds, "We're taught how Horatio Alger's 'from rags to riches' novels were used to give people a false impression of the ease of making it in America. But I must say that I honestly believe that it is more possible than ever to rise to the top by staying self-motivated and working hard."
Click on the graphic below to see the first four ads designed by Nick Roman.
5/18/06
