This week i continued the design on the Social media infographics. I feel like I’m almost done. I’ve gotten it approved twice, which tells me that i am headed in the right direction. I still feel like there is something missing.  The whole point of the infographic is to have more people sign up to take their online social media class. They don’t want to be very obvious with that but in the end of the graphic they want to suggest it. Ann is always looking at the small details that I overlook sometimes and she sees things in a creative way much quicker too. Some things i overlooked were the company colors and some stats that didn’t make sense.

Draft 2

Draft 4

During the week my supervisor and i were reviewed by someone from BTTIP. The review was about what I am learning and what i’ve been doing. I was honest and spoke about how at first i was extremely nervous but now i feel comfortable.  I also mentioned how almost every week I’m given a new resource that I can use somewhere else in my design or career also how I’m encouraged to ask questions and ask my other co-workers. Ann also spoke about me and pretty much said very nice things.

On a sidenote I can’t believe my internship is halfway thru. hope wherever I end up next in my career the environment will be similar.

So this week has been a bit stressful at my internship, because i have been assigned to make an infographic on how Nonprofits use social media. At first i honestly thought it was going to be much easier because infographics look very simple and easy. But I quickly learned that it’s not like that. There is a ton of raw information that i had to look for and pick out what i can use. My supervisor Ann sent me some links and some information that our company had done in the past.

Once i found all the stats that i needed i went over it with Ann, we Broke it down into four parts, what social media outlets are Nonprofits using, What’s the social media landscape looking like,why some nonprofits aren’t really using social media, and what can Nonprofits use to make social media easier on them.  Once i locked this down I began to finally make the infographic on Illustrator. It was taking me a while to get it, mainly because of all the data that’s suppose to go into it and not knowing how to creatively show it. Ann saw that i was having trouble with it and showed me to this amazing website called Piktochart.com that has all these preset templates of charts and graphs for infographics.  “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel if you’re trying to get it, you can just use it” is what Ann told me. So before the end of the day on thursday i did one because i was still trying to learn how to use it but i think it came out okay then friday I did another one and it’s looking better. I was a bit frustrating throughout the week because i wanted to get it done faster but i couldn’t to impress my supervisor.

Draft 1

Draft 2

I worked on Snorkl this week, a new Whole Whale product that will make it much easier for organizations to contact whole whale with a project. It also helps the organization that is Making the Request For Proposal (RFP), get a clear idea of what actually want. Its basically a survey that asks you fourteen questions and you done a RFP is generated. Now the organization that applied can use it with Whole Whale or anywhere else.

the design process behind Snorkl was interesting but also a bit frustrating.  I didn’t think it was going to take me as long as it did, on monday i looked from some inspiration on how i wanted my logo design to look. When i showed Ann she made me realize something. It was all too literal and all the same thing. I had to think beyond what Snorkl was and think about what it does. It helps Nonprofits, it’s a generator, it’s meant to be easy and save you a lot of time. I started sketching on thursday and i had ideas flowing and different directions i wanted to go in, but i quickly realized when i jump onto the computer that most of the designs that i had would not work. So i went back to sketching trying to find something to make the logo fit. Ann told me not too worry about it because it’s a process, getting it right the first time is rare and that maybe if i went back to basics it could work.  So i did that and she approved one of my sketches and on friday i began the final on illustrator.

When i finished it i sent it over to her too see what her thought were. She emailed me back like 2 hours later with some edits and i feel like it works alot better than what i had. So it was frustrating but i feel like i did learn a lot this week because there is no correct way of finding a design. Trail n error is the name of the game.

This week was fun i banged out a new blog graphic everyday i was there. i feel more fluent and more comfortable with what i’m doing now. i remember that the first week i was there i felt very anxious, but now i know what WWs style is like and i can adapt to it better. Ann my supervisor is also extremely helpful she’s always giving me advice on how to do it make a design better or tweaking a concept for a graphic.

Mondays Graphic

Thursday Graphic

Next week i’m going to start working on one of WWs new products they have call Snorkl which is a Request For Proposal generator for non profits. I’m going to be working on creating a logo, so i’m very excited about that.

This week i had a quiz on some of the client’s Whole Whale has. The quiz date was posted on the google calendar so Alison (the other intern) and i both knew when it was. I studied some of the clients but WW (whole whale) has a lot, probably over 15 companies. I was nervous because i don’t really deal with some of the other brands i mostly do blog graphics and social media templates for WW. The day of the quiz comes and i thought it was going to be a written quiz, between the supervisor and the interns. Nope it was during our morning check in where we all talk about what we did and are going to do that day. I had a few curve balls thrown at me. For example instead of telling me the name of the company they would give me the abbreviation. I choked for a lot of them, but everyone in the room was very helpful and explained the organization after i would say what i thought it was. After the quiz they gave  us a huge chocolate chip cookie.

I also worked on making a postcard for WWs new online course on social media.