Meet The Creative Force Behind The PGA Of America’s Brand Materials

Wendy Akner
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Job: Creative Manager, PGA of America
Education: Adelphi University, Business Administration
Twitter: @PGA

6:15am: After pressing my alarm’s snooze button twice, I roll out of bed and make breakfast for my boys, Andrew, who’s 7, and Christopher, age 5. Then I jump in the shower hoping for a few minutes of calm before Emily, my 15-month-old daughter, wakes up. My hopes are dashed when I hear banging on the bathroom door. Uh oh; Christopher is hysterical because Andrew is chewing his bagel too loudly. I quickly finish up in the shower, make sure no blood was shed between my boys, and tell them to brush their teeth and get dressed. As I finish making my bed, I hear the wake-up call on my daughter’s baby monitor. Time to get the dragon.

7:32am: We leave the house, and I manage to drop Christopher off at school a few minutes early before jumping onto the Florida Turnpike and heading to my niece’s house. My niece – may she win the lottery and live a thousand years – homeschools Andrew and looks after my daughter. After a quick update about the day’s lessons and kisses for everyone, I’m out the door.

8:45am: I arrive at the Professional Golfers’ Association headquarters (a.k.a. the PGA). The PGA of America is one of the world’s largest sports organizations, and the walls are appropriately covered in memorabilia and images of iconic golf players. I walk through the office and greet my colleagues. More than 200 people work at the PGA headquarters, but we’re a tight-knit team, and I think I know just about everyone in the office by name. Together, we work to grow interest and participation in the game of golf by providing world-class education, career services, and marketing and research programs – not to mention organizing premiere events like the PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, and KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

9:00am: I say good morning to my staff, turn on my office computer, and check my email. I try not to respond immediately. Instead, I update my to-do list and prioritize what I’ll respond to first. Once I complete my list, I block off my calendar to make sure I’ll have uninterrupted time to crank through my to-do list between design work.

9:30am: Time for a creative update meeting with my amazing design team. As creative manager, I’m responsible for driving the PGA of America’s creative process – producing our brand materials, thoughtfully capturing the spirit of the organization, and sharing it with our community. Three of our talented graphic designers and I huddle up in our media center conference room to go over our queue of 37 design requests from stakeholders across the organization. Before we even jump into the design work, we chat through deadlines, challenges, solutions, and efficiency opportunities. Meanwhile, we’re also preparing for an influx of design requests that tournament season will bring next month (everything from logo development to on-site signage for our Major Championships). We’re all excited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the PGA Championship, one of golf’s four majors, this year. We spend the end of the meeting brainstorming ideas for unique and engaging anniversary graphics that elevate our brand.

10:30am: Back at my desk, I turn my attention to the print materials for our upcoming Major Championships. I chat with local vendors, reviewing cost estimates and making plans for timely, accurate delivery of the brochures, catalogs, and invitations we’ll be printing for our events. Since Major Championships take place across the country, venues change from year to year, and many materials require overnight printing, so this process is a lot of work! But it’s definitely worthwhile to vet different vendors upfront in an effort to find the best partner.

11:30am: I line up a photographer for an upcoming press conference, during which our 2018 Ryder Cup captain, Jim Furyk, will announce his two vice captains. This team will travel to Paris to compete with the European Ryder Cup Team in the hopes of retaining the Ryder Cup trophy. Go Team USA!

12:00pm: Our Diversity & Inclusion specialist, Linnet, swings by my desk to discuss collateral and signage we’re working on for the annual PGA Minority Collegiate Championship – a 54-hole, stroke-play championship for minority men and women players that consists of four team divisions and an individual invitational competition. We go over the vision for the directional course signage, as well as all the event-specific ads, name badges, and programs.

12:45pm: As I wrap up responding to a few quick emails, my stomach growls. I skipped breakfast, and in order to avoid getting hangry, I get up to grab lunch. After a very important meeting with my colleagues regarding what Thai restaurant we should go to, a group of us hop in my minivan and head out to lunch. While we eat, we discuss last night’s episode of This is Us, parenting, and some cool online classes we noticed on CreativeLive and Lynda.com. On our way back to the office, we stop at Starbucks to pick up my afternoon fix – a tall caramel macchiato and a few petite scones – which I ordered in advance via the mobile app. I’m all about efficiency!

1:45pm: I meet with my boss, PGA chief commercial officer Jeff Price, to review current design projects. We discuss an upcoming campaign promoting our members as leading experts in both the game and business of golf. Next up: We begin devising a plan for our projected workflow increase. Starting in 2019, the PGA Championship will move from August to May, but since we haven’t adjusted the dates of our other championships, we’re anticipating that a lot of the championship design requests will overlap. It’s great to be getting ahead of this. Jeff listens thoughtfully to a few ideas I have and chimes in with his own too. By the end of the meeting, we’re confident in our path forward.

2:45pm: I start working through budget projections for our next fiscal year. The first step is reviewing our current operational budgets and mapping out a plan for spending. Shifting gears, I meet with our local print vendor to review the proofs (a.k.a. hardcopy previews) of our merchandise catalog. The cover looks phenomenal, and the vendor chimes in that he thinks the catalog will win big at the Florida Print Awards (a statewide design competition). I pass that compliment along to my team and thank them for their great work.

4:00pm: Like clockwork, I receive a call from my husband and know immediately what’s coming. Should I answer? Alas, I can’t avoid it. I speak quickly, hoping to be the first to ask the question, but he beats me to it: “Hey honey, what’s for dinner?” Ahhhhh! This is by far the toughest question of the day. Luckily, I remember we have some leftover chicken cutlets I froze over the weekend. Crisis averted. He reminds me he’s taking the kids to wrestling practice and will be home around 6:30pm.

4:45pm: Where did the time go? I glance at my to-do list and realize I’ve only crossed off half of my tasks for the day. I step up my pace, reaching out to photographers and championship directors to coordinate a photoshoot for some upcoming promotional materials. After that, I check in with my team and run through any questions they need answered. With my team and my to-do list in good shape, I shut down my computer and head home.

5:30pm: I use my 35-minute drive to call my mom in New York. As we chat, I’m sure to remind her that it’s snowing where she lives, while it’s a balmy 82 degrees here in Florida. I thought this would be a great way to persuade her to visit, but she’s opting to take a cruise to the Caribbean next month instead. The weather will still be very nice here when she gets back, so I’ll try again then.

6:05pm: I get home, change out of my work clothing, and begin to prepare the chicken cutlets and some pasta with butter sauce for dinner. A few minutes later, my husband gets home with the kids. After lots of hugs and kisses, dinner is served. We sit as a family, and the boys begin to tell me about their day, while my daughter, Emily, throws pasta onto the floor from her highchair. After we finish eating, everyone helps clean up (except for Emily, who has found a way to empty her no-spill sippy cup onto the floor … clever girl). While emptying Christopher’s backpack, I discover an assignment for what looks to be another exciting school project. My husband and I play rock, paper, scissor to see who will be the one to work on this one with him. I win (which is only fair, since I lost the last two times and am still scraping hot glue off of my favorite t-shirt from his Valentine’s Day mailbox). My husband is pretty handy, so I’m sure he’ll come up with something fantastic for this next project: A Leprechaun trap!

7:30pm: I dunk Emily into her blue whale bathtub (making sure she doesn’t eat the bubbles!), get her in her pajamas, and warm up her bottle. After Emily gives quick goodnight kisses to the boys and drinks her bottle, I lay her in her crib and say good night. I join my husband and read a bedtime story to the boys. We warn against shenanigans, telling them to go straight to bed or else we’re not taking them to Universal Studios this coming weekend. Of course, our strategy doesn’t quite work. It takes 30 more minutes before they finally fall asleep.

8:30pm: Time to decompress. My husband has cleaned the kitchen, and now he’s out in the backyard while I sit on the couch and watch Shark Tank. During commercials, I check Facebook and Instagram to see what my friends and family have been up to.

10:00pm: I take a quick peek at my work email to make sure there are no surprises tomorrow and to start my to-do list for the morning. After a hot shower, I watch a few minutes of local news, and talk to my husband about the next steps for renovating our kitchen (a different type of design work!).

11:30pm: My husband and I say goodnight, count our blessings, and go to bed. It’s not long before we’re both soundly and blissfully asleep.

PGA of America is a Jopwell partner company.
Images by LILA PHOTO