Outlook Magazine - Fall 2018

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

BIG CITY TALENT

T he road to New York, Anna Haggerty’s dream city, went through UW-Stout. In January, Haggerty began work as a graphic designer at L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company. Since about age six, Haggerty had dreamed of moving there to work and live. When she graduated in May 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and interactive media, that’s exactly where she went. “I left Minnesota with very little money — the one-way ticket thing,” said Haggerty, who grew up in Oronoco, a city of about 1,300 people in southeastern Minnesota. After working a part-time job and then a short-term, full- time freelance position while living with an aunt and uncle in New York, she interviewed with L’Oréal. “Five minutes after I left the interview, the recruiter called and said I had the position.” Graphic design grad realizes NY dream after landing job with L’Oréal

Working in midtown Manhattan near L’Oréal’s U.S. headquarters — the company’s home is in Paris, France — Haggerty is designing print materials for one of L’Oréal’s best-known brands, Redken, along with myriad other design duties, like helping design a presentation for the CEO. She has designed posters for Redken that began showing up this summer at salons around the world and at Ulta Beauty stores. Haggerty also will be involved in new product launches this year. Some of the company’s other brands are Maybelline, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Lancôme, Ralph Lauren and Garnier. Haggerty believes she had a well-rounded education, with a strong foundation in design principles, at UW-Stout’s School of Art and Design. She also gained valuable experience working part time as a designer in University Marketing all four years of college. “Everything Stout provided helped me prepare for this. I had no anxieties.” She appreciates how Professor Nagesh Shinde pressed her to reach her potential as a designer. Although Haggerty’s dream was to head to the East Coast, she didn’t look very far east when it came to choosing a college. “My high school teachers said, ‘You have to go to Stout.’ I only applied to Stout.”

“I left Minnesota with very little money — the one-way ticket thing.”