Brittany Jacob: An Unconventional Star

Brittany Jacob sewing and mascot production manager at Olympus Group

Brittany Jacob is anything but conventional. Jacob is the sewing and mascot production manager at Olympus Group, a company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that offers direct digital printing, screen printing, and dye-sublimation on a wide variety of fabrics and hard substrates, as well as in-house finishing services. But as her job title alludes to, they also provide promotional and branding support through mascot services, among others. It is via the mascot avenue that Jacob got her start in the wide-format printing world.

An Atypical Entry

“I actually got into print in an unconventional way: through mascots!” says Jacob. As a student, she studied costume design, and after graduating in 2012, she joined the Olympus team. “I got a job at Olympus Group in their mascot department patterning, sewing, and creating mascot costumes. It was from there that I was introduced to dye-sublimation and the print industry.”

From those beginnings, Jacob has flourished, and today she is in a management role. “As my career grew, I got more into management and today oversee not only the mascot department but also the custom sewing department at Olympus Group,” she states. “With this role, I have learned a lot about the print industry, the trade show industry, and found another passion in what print materials can do.”

It was no accident that she moved into management, either. Brian Adam, president at Olympus, nominated Jacob as a Rising Star for a lot of reasons. “Brittany has developed countless individuals, streamlined production, and is one of our key leaders at a 200-person company,” he says.

Her initiative, passion, and background in costume design have combined to create a fun experience, according to Jacob. And being in the mascot world, she’s had her fair share of interesting jobs. “One of the most interesting projects we got to do was making 5-ft.-tall mittens,” she explains. “They were made out of foam, but with the print capabilities we had we were able to make these look like crocheted mittens with the use of dye-sublimated materials.”

She believes this aspect of the printing industry is a big part of why she’s done so well. “The mascot and sewing production manager … is a position that, every day, I am able to work on interesting projects and learn something new about printing,” she explains. But that’s not the only thing that keeps her going. “To see some of the costumes, structures, or frames we can print and create a completely different texture or look to is really impressive and keeps my creative side always pushing the boundaries of what can we do next,” Jacob says.

That motivation and push to explore boundaries has paid off. As she grew professionally, she has also gotten to expand her reach within the company, traveling around the nation to leave her mark. “[Brittany] is our finishing lead, managing a sewing team in Milwaukee,” says Adam. “[She] built/set up our sewing team in Denver, helped coordinate finishing initiatives with our team in Orlando, and is in the process of setting up a facility in Nashville.”

Lessons in Printing

As a Rising Star, Jacob has shown great passion for the printing industry. But like most anything worth achieving in life, it hasn’t come without some bumps. However, it’s those bumps, those challenges, those lessons that have also spurred her forward in her career.

She notes that the pace of the print industry can sometimes be overwhelming. “The print industry I am in can be very fast-paced, and you have to be on your toes a good amount of time, which can be a challenge when problems arise and you only have an hour before the project has to go out the door,” she says. This is where the biggest lesson she’s learned comes in: teamwork.

“Collaboration is the key to success,” she believes. “Working in a team or group just allows for so many possibilities to come to light when you hit a challenge with a project.” Jacob calls attention to the group she works with, saying they work together to get the job done. “We all do a good job at tapping into each other’s specialties to solve our daily challenges,” she adds.

For those just starting out in the industry, a group she was part of not that long ago, Jacob has a few words of wisdom to share: “Never shy away from an opportunity, even if it scares you. Print was definitely not something I knew a lot about, but it has made me so much stronger of a technician learning what it can do.”

Being a part of the group at Olympus has also taught her another lesson: you never know where an unconventional start will lead you in your career. “It has opened a lot of doors in my career and introduced me to a lot of amazing people that I am thankful for every day.”