SHIFT MAGAZINE CLASS OF ‘22

Sanaa Banks Nursing BS School of Nursing

Content Team

Kellie Bolden Theatre VCUarts Design Team

Hailey Fitzgerald Strategic Advertising Robertson School Content Team

UnBeknownst

Brandon Ranly Interdisciplinary Studies

Content Team

Julien Reininger Master of Product Innovation da Vinci Center Project Management Team

Cheryl Slokker Staff

VCU School of Business Project Management Team

Marie Kamara Political Science Humanities & Sciences

Content Team

Zachera Kernizan Master of Product Innovation da Vinci Center Project Management Team

Bella Lubinskas Strategic Advertising Robertson School Content Team

UnWavering

Tony Ward Strategic Advertising Robertson School Content Team

Warren Wheat Strategic Advertising Robertson School Design Team

Kii Williams Biology Humanities & Sciences Content Team

Brandon McCleskey Political Science

Humanities & Sciences

Content Team

Leah Milligan Sociology Interdisciplinary Studies Design Team

Hadia Moosvi Broadcast Journalism Robertson School Content Team

Jessica Collins Advertising Professor Robertson School Faculty

Lloyd Young Director of Innovation & Design da Vinci Center Faculty

Table of Contents

01 - 10 : Shift Retail Lab

The Story of Shift

Shift Branding

11 - 48 : Meet the Shelfies

Briana Williams | LipLoveLine

Mason Miles | Dress for Yourself

Zachera Kernizan | ti Boulé

Malique Middleton | Gewd Botanicals

Peyton Spangler | Noodlers

Julien Reininger | Jacked! Jackfruit Jerky

Meet the Shifters (Staff at Shift)

49 - 58 : Lessons from the Shelfies

Where to Find Inspiration

Fail Fast, Fail Frequently, and Fail Forward The Forgotton Factor The Future

59 - 66 : Shift you Mindset

Class Playlist

Connect the Dots Mona Lisa Shift into the Stars

Entrepreneurial Horoscopes

Quiz: What’s Your Entrepreneurial Achilles’ Heel?

Wellness Tips & Tricks

67 - 78 : Community Statement Modelz

SMYTH on The City

Calling Artists!

79 - 84 : About Shift & VCU da Vinci Center

About Shift Retail Lab

About VCU da Vinci Center

Thanks to our Board!

We shared the vision of wanting to bring an oncampus physical space for student founders to sell their work. Not only did we want to help promote their work, but we also wanted to create an environment in which they could freely learn with the support of the da Vinci Center’s team.

Entrepreneurial involvement in schools usually involves shared intellectual property rights and other proprietary matters. Our vision was to create something that was more open, available and adaptable.

Our first step was to build the space, however, there was an overall halt on projects due to COVID-19. Luckily, our team saw this as an opportunity to conduct more research and establish a strong

The Story of Shift

A Conversation with the Founders

By, Bella Lubinskas

brand. We worked with Brandcenter students to create the Shift Retail Lab brand and we also worked with some undergraduate classes to gain insight into the future of retail. Through this collaboration, we learned that the biggest need on campus was a place to conduct testing and research as opposed to promoting and selling a developed idea.

We had our ribbon cutting in November 2021, but we didn’t start filling our shelves with Shelfies until the spring. And in just that small amount of time, we’ve learned so much. So the same way that students use Shift to gain feedback, we use it to gain feedback from the community, students and other partners.

Garret Westlake Executive Director

Like a true service leader, Garret adapts his idea of innovation from a student:

“Creativity is thinking about new ideas, innovation is implementing new ideas and entrepreneurship is sustaining new ideas.”

Lloyd Young Director of Innovation and Design

“Some of the most imperative parts of being an entrepreneur are believing in yourself, putting an idea out there, being able to receive feedback and adjusting and adapting accordingly.”

Why Shift?

How VCU Brandcenter Brought Shift to Life

By, Bella Lubinskas

When the da Vinci Center started working on a concept for a new student storefront, they enlisted the help of VCU’s Brandcenter, a graduate school for branding and advertising, to create the branding of Shift that we all know and love. KT Schaeffer, Creative Director and Professor at the Brandcenter was more than delighted to take on this task given her personal experience with experiential advertising for retail. With this enthusiasm, she enlisted a cross-disciplinary team of 15 advertising students that were eager to give a name that would bring this space to life.

What were your initial thoughts of this project?

When Lloyd, from the da Vinci Center, told us about this idea, I thought it was brilliant and I wanted to get involved. I wanted to help in any possible way because I thought- and still think it’s so smart. I wish it had been something that I had been able to have access to as a student or alum because I love the idea of small business, it’s something I’ve always been passionate about! I’ve always had little small businesses of my own here and there. So the idea of having a free place to set up shop and in practice is brilliant. And I loved the idea of it being ever-expanding!

How do you define Shift?

Shift is a place where VCU students can showcase, sell, gain recognition and inform the public about their venture, regardless of the phase it’s in. Shift is a physical representation of going beyond the mission to introduce the diverse talent within the VCU community. When we had to think about what Shift was at its core, we found ourselves obsessing over innovation. This wasn’t just a place to think or create, and it isn’t a place that is just for the people studying a particular discipline, this is a place for everybody who has an idea.

What was the reasoning behind the name Shift?

One of the things that we wanted to make sure to touch on was that this place isn’t your typical brick-and-mortar. And we wanted something that had legs, not only from just an understanding of where it could go but how it could be used. We wanted a word that people could use in describing or referencing the space and the people. We recognized that this is a place that will constantly be evolving no matter who’s in it.

During our creative process, we created a Venn diagram of innovation and impact and found the storefront fit perfectly in between. Innovation is nothing unless it’s shared and can create change or create an impact, and we wanted to represent this storefront in a way that merged both of these concepts. During our brainstorming period, we kept circling concepts for names like possibilities, progress, movement, flexibility, change, and energy. But we found that the term ‘Shift’ embodied all of these things and thus, the name was born.

This of course led to our manifesto: For innovators, for everyone. Our infinite ideas have the potential to be limitless. Every day we try something new. The shift is curious, adventurous, and dynamic. Shift is committed to change, but not above moving on. Shift is about moving forward. We want more, not more of the same. More ideas, more creators, more perspectives, and more opportunities to showcase them. Shift is here to push the potential, not to limit it, to open doors and break down walls, to embrace innovators and dreamers, and to shift towards a brighter future.

What was the research process like?

We looked at all kinds of different retail spaces and small businesses, and we dug into the history of those spaces. We also went down a whole rabbit hole about the history of Richmond and what other schools have done. We did this because it’s important to know what’s been done before us and what’s going on right now, so we didn’t go down the same path. Instead, we wanted to ask ourselves how might we go down a second path? It wasn’t until we started diving into looking at the potential competition that we realized Shift was standalone within its field. This made our thinking a bit murky since we didn’t know how they truly wanted to define themselves. So, we all decided to define it as a retail lab, not a storefront.

What was the most impactful part of this project for you and your team?

I think the most impactful part was what we created. We sealed a strong visual foundation and brand voice for what ideation looks for. We created a foundation that stands for what this space truly is, what it believes in, and what’s next. That foundation was laid in such a way that Shift can continue to build, grow, and shift its focus while still being rooted in the same mission and vision. This allows anybody else coming to layer into this amazing vision and mission that no one could question. Shift is rooted in all the right things, and we’re all impacted by that.

What’s your key takeaway from Shift? Collaboration is key. No matter what you’re working on, get people that have different perspectives and different points of view. The more you are collaborating with different points of view and different people from different backgrounds and disciplines, the better the result will be. I think me pulling in this hodgepodge team from all different backgrounds, all different parts of the world, and allowing each one of them to hone in on their own skill sets to bring to the table will always stick with me. I will also always appreciate that all of us listened to each other. I think that’s what made us better, because when we were at our stopping point, we were able to step back and say, Hold on, we’re going down the wrong way! Our whole team had these great checks and balances with each other that allowed for an incredible work dynamic. I would say without a doubt, the more you are getting to involve yourself in that type of collaboration, the better you will be growing as a creative problem solver.

What kind of future do you see for Shift?

I think Shift has the potential to be even bigger! Like, it just started figuring itself out and still has that element of newness to it. I don’t think there’s an opportunity for them to fail unless of course we physically can’t get the doors open.

Did your team experience any setbacks during this process?

For the first couple of rounds of ideation, we felt like we were getting stuck so much on what we felt was expected from Garret, Lloyd, and VCU as a whole. We had to step back and ask, “What are we talking about here?”

We also ran into the problem of not wanting to be stereotypical Richmond. We were constantly asking ourselves, How do we break free of the expectations of retail, small business, or Richmond alone? We were constantly wondering how we could break out of the norm of what’s already been done or what the city may expect.

We realized we weren’t talking about anything typical, to begin with, we were talking about the crossover of innovation and implementation.

So stepping back and taking off the mental handcuffs that we were putting on ourselves allowed us to get out of our brains and go crazy. From that, we were able to get it down to about four or five ideas that we were feeling right. We would take a five-minute break and then come back in and instantly grab like the first one that grabbed their mind. Like we always say, go for what gives you goosebumps! Go for what makes you feel something!

What makes a project like Shift successful?

Like I say to all my students, all amazing things have to just be this aha moment. The more you are practicing that skill set of convergent and divergent thinking, the more you’ll be able to start building up these things. However, if you are not doing the research and the work behind all those other steps, then you won’t get those aha moments. When you do the work and you have a great strategy, you have a foundation that can’t be lost. The best strategies are like a good diving board. Does a good board allow the creative or the diver to jump off that into this amazing pool of opportunities with a good bounce? Your strategy or diving board should spark ideas. However, those tingly feelings sometimes don’t happen. It doesn’t mean that the work isn’t good or that your diving board is horrible, but it does bring up the question of if your research and insights are rooted in the right things. But the more that you practice the more of those tingles that make up a good diving board show up.

Meet the Shelfies

Our Shelfies have about a month to showcase and test their ideas. They could be working on a product or service that is already developed or starting at the beginning, with just an idea. During their month at Shift they will receive a stipend and programming, including a bootcamp, Feedback Friday, and group pop-up market. Our content team got a chance to sit down with a few of the current and past Shelfies from Shift and you can browse our conversations in this section.

Each semester there are multiple opportunities for current VCU students, alumni, and community founders to test their products, services, and ideas on the shelf at Shift.

Shelf·ie noun

A person who tests their ideas on the shelves at Shift Retail Lab

Project Name

LipLoveLine

Product Type

Physical Product, Beauty

Development Stage

On the Market

Community Founder, Jackson Ward

Collective Member