Work Etiquette

In “Modern Etiquette: Minding your manners in the workplace,” Pamela Eyring states how manners could advance your work career: “It’s been said that good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.” I find this to be very true because good etiquette equals to good behavior regardless of the situation. However, in today society there is a thin line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. A lot of the norms I grew up installed into my DNA are not norms in today society, and it has spilled over into the workforce.

Almost half of my coworkers are conversing on their cellphones, loudly, while on the clock. I personally know that this is a no-no from previous work experiences and from my morals. This is one of the bad etiquette in a work environment that the article mentioned.  This bad behavior is linked to, “Don’t sink to someone else’s standards”, which mean to always stay on track with the company’s Code of Ethics regardless if your coworkers abused them.

Creative Block

I used to fill extremely guilty about having creative block because I did not know how to overcome it. Reading the article from Creative Bloq, 20 pro tips for design graduate, gave me a few pointers on how to deal with it. I must identify what triggers my mind to go into creative mode. Going to the art museums, art friendly neighborhoods that have a lot of graffiti stimulates my creative juices to flow. Visiting the design and magazine section at Barnes and Nobles inspires me on many different ways, for I could discover a color palette or layout that I never thought of. This article reminded me how creative block is something that would happen after I graduate college, so I must practice on working through it.

Rubbing Elbows Professionally

My networking event I decided to attend was the Daily News Innovation Lab, Conversations. They spoke on how design has many influences such as political, ethnical, and fine arts that could be used for good or evil. I was also able to network with other design students from The New School.
I was greeted by the Daily News web design team and was given a name tag. The floor was fully branded with Microsoft’s logo, brand colors, and merchandise. There were snacks like popcorn, cookies, brownies, sandwiches, and beverages. While eating the refreshments, I met two design students, Ashely and Chris, which we spoke about our major and the design culture.

Ashely is from New Jersey and been drawing since she was five years old. She is a sophomore at the New School and her major is Fine Arts. She explained to me how one of her project was to create a composition by using her professor as inspiration, which I found to be weird for the professor to assign. After graduated, she would love to own her own studio one day and teach art to the youths. Chris also attends the New School, and his major is Animation. I thought it was so cool to be at a school which is well known for its contribution to the design culture. As being a gamer, he always been interesting in animation and motion graphics. He encouraged me register for motion graphics next semester because I love typography and color, and I could create amazing design/motion graphics with those elements. We all exchange contact info to keep in touch with one another for future free design events or networking opportunities.


Relocation

My supervisor informed that the office will be relocating to a different space, so we would need to design new signage that will inform incoming and current students where to go. I also have to redesign the current signage because it does not have the new City Tech’s branding standards such as, the school colors which changed from a deep royal blue and gold to a pure royal blue and white. First, I research inspirations on wayfinding and signage by using Pinterest, Behance, and Pentagram. I came across Pave Academy Charter School environmental graphics designed by Paula Scher. The design was very clean, easily to understand, and visual pleasing. I also discovered the importance of the use of white space. Incorporating white space is essential for legibility when you have a lot of type on the page. So my goal for this week is to complete a draft of the signage, which would be 4 -5 pages, then print them out to make the final decision on the layout and composition.

Social Media Presence

At my internship, we touch bases on the assignments that I would be working on such as, social media, branding, signage, and the employee manual. Social Media marketing will be a new field that I look forward on conquering, because currently my portfolio does not have any work in this subject. I plan to document the impact of the social media page since I started to work on it, so I could use it as a reference on how I enhance my client social media presence.

This week on my internship, I had to design an Instagram post for National Women’s Month which I was given full creative control on the inspiration. At the end of the day, I was able to submit two different variations of the post and advised my supervisor on which one would be more effective.


The Voice of the Page

I’m a graphic designer that aimed to engage the reader by being the voice of the page by creating visual concepts to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, and captivate. I have always been interested in creating graphic design that has a connection with people. Studying Communication Design has given me a better insight into what path I would follow in the future. I would like to develop the overall layout and production of design for various applications such as advertisements, brochures, magazines, and book jackets. Because my field of interest is so vast, I will consider myself a generalist a person that is skillful in several different areas.