The Center for Cartoon Studies

If you’re interested in cartooning, The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is the place to be. The school offers the only two-year Master of Fine Arts Degree in cartooning in the nation, helping students learn how to create and disseminate comics, graphic novels and visual materials (on a recent project students and alumni worked with editors on images to produce 200 Hallmark cards, a Slate.com journal comic, and a graphic biography line with Disney.) Experienced and internationally recognized cartoonists, writers, designers and visiting artists teach classes.

President and cofounder Michelle Ollie wanted to find solutions that fit with the CCS culture of impeccable design and user experience. As design takes a front seat at CCS, Ollie tries to find ways to highlight the elegance inherent in a well-organized project.

“Most of the students and faculty at Cartoon Studies are entrepreneurial,” says Ollie. “We help them develop an organizing method for their projects and ideas. Tools like Smartsheet and Google Apps, which are easy to use and have a great user experience can take the organizing stress away, affording more time to create, and ultimately more successful.” 

In the past, Ollie and her staff used spreadsheets for managing projects such as development, enrollment, registrations, and admissions. “With spreadsheet worksheets, we would often have to wait to have the latest document in front of us; it became a paper trail and version control issue. Most commercial options to manage this information far exceeded our operations budget and they were often too complex.”

Ollie became a Google Apps for Business customer and quickly discovered Smartsheet, Google Documents, Sites, Calendar, and more. Ollie chose Smartsheet for managing internal operations because the user experience, design of the environment and operation is simple, yet still offering sophisticated features in a spreadsheet-like interface.

“In small business, spreadsheets are the number one tool,” says Ollie. “What I love about Smartsheet is it centralizes all our project content, so you don’t have to deal with different versions. The information is always accessible online, from your ipad or any computer. Since it’s online and integrated with Google Docs, it encourages collaboration and ultimately accountability. Members working remotely can easily collaborate on projects, and have 24/7 access to project details.”

CCS is using Smartsheet and Google Apps across the organization (for more detail, the Patricia Seybold Group recently profiled how CCS delivers a better customer experience with the tools.)

• Professional Development Resource Library - Faculty created a Google Sites platform with resources on how to build a portfolio, resume examples, publisher information, grant information, design critiques and other practice related information creators need to know. Now the information and documents are  housed in one place and available 24x7 so the students can access it when they need it.
• Curriculum Tools -  Google Apps have become invaluable as curriculum tools housing presentations, links, lecture notes and research. Content is archived and available for both the students and the next faculty member to the teach the course. Smartsheet was the primary organizing tool for managing the recent State certification process as well as a technology upgrade project for the Schulz Library.
• Facilities Management - The Center for Cartoon Studies campus lab is open 24/7 for student access. Imagine you are a student working on a graphic novel in the production lab at 2am under deadline. A piece of equipment goes haywire. What do you do? You pull up a URL with a Smartsheet form and input the issue, the machine, the lab number and click submit.  You've just kicked off a notification to the facilities department who is able to see whether this is a repair which needs immediate attention or can wait until morning.
• Project Management - Managing the many development projects and proposals are now all centralized on Smartsheet. CCS uses Smartsheet for large collaborative projects, including generating a an indepth Self-Study report, grant applications, facilities projects, publication production, and managing and marketing and events. The streamlined system keeps users at CCS on track and on task. Files are attached to the rows, along with discussion notes, and reminders and calendar alerts are automatically sent to content contributors.

Ollie sees even more possible innovative uses for Smartsheet and Google Apps at CCS in the future. “I have a post-it wall with future ideas! This stuff is fun.”