Samantha N. Khoury

Welcome to my portfolio! I'm a recent honors graduate from Seton Hall University. I have a dual Bachelor's degree in English Literature & Communications. Here are some samples of my past and current work.

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Casa.com Site Optimization

Hi Everyone, 

Casa.com is fully revamped! I worked with a team of Merchandising and Data Entry Associates to clean up the look and feel of the site. I was primarily assigned to work with the Dining, Home Decor and Outdoor & Garden categories to make them easier and more efficient to for the customer to search for products he/she wanted.

We were working on a strict deadline. Often multitasking, prioritizing and re-organizing workloads to ensure our timelines were being met. What a busy and long project this was. Our whole team had to download, check over and completely update the entire website, but you will hear no complaints from me! I enjoyed the hustle and bustle and the end result makes me proud to be a part of this team. 

I hope you enjoy your shopping experience next time you check out Casa.com!

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This is a advertisement I made with the Adobe After Effects software for Seton Hall University's Literary Arts Magazine, Chavez (named after Cesar Chavez, the man who on behalf of fellow farm workers in the South West for their labor rights and co-founded the United Farm Workers union).

I animated each letter of the crossword puzzle individually, while matching it's animation up exactly to the scratching sound of the pencil on paper to make the words appear self-writing. Each word in the crossword displays the works that our magazine publishes (i.e. short stories, prose, poetry, hikus, photography and artwork). The ending informs students that our magazine accepts submissions on a rolling basis and for more information the interested individual can view club's contact and submission information through our Facebook and Twitter platforms. 

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Inspired by Banky's art, The Girl With the Red Balloon, here is a sample of a video that I made for my Adobe After Effects final project during my Senior year. I drew the image of the girl and balloon myself in Adobe Photoshop, brought it to life with After Effects by animating strategic points and exported the file to upload through YouTube. Bringing the image to life through the animation tools required a lot of detail, patience and time, but in the end I was pleased with the results. Seeing how I breathed life into this character and how my vision came into being was truly rewarding. As a matter of fact, my professor was so impressed with the end result, he expressed disappointment when I told him I was not a graphics design major. 

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Look what I found! Bookmarks I created to promote Seton Hall University's Literary Arts Magazine on campus! 

The idea was, rather than using flyers, these would be a great item to pass around for students with information on how to get involved or send in their submissions to the magazine. 

We were right! The students loved them! Definitely a unique and creative way to promote our publication that adds character to our magazine's public name. 

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Recently, I was called back for a second assignment with Quidsi. This time I'm working for Casa.com, their home living site where they supply home furnishings, decorations, garage, outdoor and organization supplies. While working on this site, I realized that the Casa team had never truly streamlined the imaging process. Ever since I started, back in January, I have worked with the Casa Merchandising team to organize and turn fluid the entire imaging archives for the site. Even while I was on Yoyo & Bookworm.com, I also worked closely with uploading all images and product videos for items on site and often answer all video and image upload questions of MA's who are unclear of the process and procedures themselves.

Now, when you visit the site and shop for items such as brand name you'll come across images and videos that represent the product with a clean and organized appearance. 

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My supervisor one day suggested she had been thinking about creating bundles for some of the recently launched Bookworm.com site but had not yet started looking into cute ideas for the pairings. I took the initiative in my free time and drafted together a couple of bundles ideas I thought children would enjoy. I sent the list to her, and the next day, she gave me the green light to set them up! I was so proud when, about two weeks later, she reported to me that one of my bundles had made the Top 20 Best Selling list for Bookworm.com after it's first week on sale. 

Click on the title of this post and visit all the bundles that I created. This is definitely the project I take the most pride in while working on assignment with Quidsi.

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Above is a link (title) to another assignment that I worked on for Yoyo.com. 

The assignment: Organize each party supply into their correct categories and navigation.

The result: The stopper can easily find the party supplies he/she needs to throw the best and coolest party ever!

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Above is a link (title) to the results of the Battery Project that I worked on for Yoyo.com.

The assignment: Go through 80,000 SKUs individually and determine if the need batteries or not. If they do, document how many and their types.

The result: A shopping experience that offers the customer the option to buy the batteries or not with their purchase of the product to make life a little more easier. 

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Love Story Press Release

Below is a link to another sample of a Press Release that I made for Gallery Books while serving as an Intern. This one, as opposed to Thawed Out & Fed Up, was written for the public release of a young adult novel published through Gallery Books. 

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Thawed Out & Fed Up Galley

Below is a sample of a Press Release I wrote one of Simon & Schuster's newly released (at the time) novels, Thawed Out & Fed Up, for Gallery Books when I served as a Publicity Intern. It was a lot of fun and really cool having the opportunity to facilitate the entire galley process from beginning (gather the manuscript and printing rough copies of the novels, drafting up the press release below) to end (assembling mailing lists, making mailing labels and packaging the entire press kit to send to reviewers). 

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Click the title above or the picture below to visit the Spring 2012 Issue of Seton's Hall now flourishing publication, Chavez. If we were proud to present the Fall 2011 Issue of the Literary Magazine, we're equally, if not more, proud to present you with this! 

After successfully revamping the magazine's layout last year, we decided to renovate our entire marketing campaign this semester. Reaching out via social media platforms such as twitter, blogs, facebook and e-mail blasts, we managed to generate three times the amount of hype than previous years before. Additionally, we reached out to Freshman class advisors as well as all English and Communications Professors to build one-on-one relationships with students and staff to grow our magazine's relationship with the student campus. After tripling overall interest and participation in the magazine in one year, we are proud to know and pass along this final issue to the student, staff and faculty of Seton Hall University. 

If you wish to check out previous issues from my past years on the Literary Arts Magazine, please click here to scroll through the past issues at your leisure. 

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Click on the title above or picture below and check out the Fall 2011 issue of the Literary Arts Magazine, Chavez! Named after Cesar Chavez, an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, and is still to this day considered a major historical icon for speaking about his beliefs and promoting the slogan “Si, se puede” (English Translation: “Yes, it can be done”). 

We all on the Chavez team worked hard to present issue to Seton Hall’s Campus, often rearranging the publication schedule and prioritizing the calendar of events so that our marketing and design team could ensure a professional quality and feel for the magazine. Hope you enjoy reading through it!