Christine Bell

Everything and everyone has a story.
My job is to tell those stories artistically.

Advertising is merely the interplay between words and images to evoke powerful feelings in the reader or viewer.   My third grade English teacher Mrs. Pastino helped me make the connection between words and emotions in my eight year-old head. Writing became a way of connecting and sharing my emotions in a way that was difficult for me to do in conversation.  I read voraciously - everything I could get my hands on, from magazines, to newspapers, poetry, fiction books, and even the encyclopedia, trying to figure out what the author was feeling when he or she wrote what I was reading. 


It was a series of ads for stuffed animals that piqued my interest in advertising. They were simple - with an adorable photo set off by a headline that used a pun with the brand's name. They were clever, consistent and adorable, and they worked - Gund stuffed animals were the only ones I wanted. I began poring over magazines to find and clip the ads.

In my early teens, my aunt began working for Manhattan-based agency Grey Advertising, and as I heard her stories about working on national campaigns, photoshoots, and producing TV spots, I realized that Advertising was what I wanted to do. 

At Ithaca College, I developed a great love of broadcasting, specifically audio production, and the challenge of using sound and music to evoke mental images.  As a testament to my passion and efforts, I received two scholarships: The Charles L. and Janice C. Rumrill Writing Scholarship and the Cogan Advertising Scholarship.

I've been fortunate enough to enjoy a career path that's taken me down various, roads-less-traveled, from several years working in Broadcasting, to time spent in technology marketing where I thoroughly enjoyed learning how software products made people's lives easier and their jobs more efficient. The chance to learn new things thrills me - and the ever-evolving world of social media and new ways to connect through photography, like via Instagram and Snapchat, stimulates my creativity.