Category: COMD 4900 Internship

When it comes to ethics in business and design, what is most important and made clear is the form of agreement made by the designer, client, and third party who may be sourcing their work for use on a given project. This is done to ensure that all involved know their rights given on the work produced from how it’ll be used, being reproduced, pricing for the work, etc.

Due to the size of the company at my internship; the designers are also the photographers, the illustrators, the videographers, etc. As a result, most of the work being used for a project was made and handled by the designer currently working on said project; there is no third party to negotiate with. An example would be when I was tasked in taking photos of a culinary class and would immediately work on them afterwards. I’m also currently working on creating layer masks on photos provided and produced by my supervisor himself who I do have contact with. Because of this work style, there is no confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement to sign since the designer is using their own work. It’s encouraged at the company to produce your own images/works for use when working on a given project so there isn’t any conflict and it’s simply easier when working with content that you have produced.

The company Image & Visual Communications can be seen to an extent as the client they’re producing work for; the company is also the official office of communications for the college. The company is therefore technically the college’s “in-house” design agency, producing promotional materials and work for the brand and client. The company’s logo is the official college logo and brand, which is used in all materials produced for the college made by those who also officially work in the college. The concern in ethics here is simply giving credit to the designer who produced a particular work since it’s already made clear on how the work will be used and why.

Citations:

Crawford, Tad. “Use of Photography”. AIGA Business Ethics. AIGA, 2009.

“Non Disclosure Agreement.” Uploaded by RocketLawyer, Scribd, Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/document/91894008/Non-Disclosure-Agreement.

Rigsby, Lana; Stone, Joanna. “A Client’s Guide to Design”. AIGA Business Ethics. AIGA, 2009.

My role at Image & Visual Communications is intern/assistant to my supervisor who is also one of the senior designers as well as a professor at the institution/college. My job/duties are to assist my supervisor with tasks for ongoing projects at the college, mainly involved in promotional materials and publications. One of the recent projects I’ve been tasked to assist on was taking photos of a culinary class for promotional posters for the Hospitality Management department. I’m currently working on organizing the photos based on what can be used as promotional material for the posters.

I came to work here after being recommended this internship by my Internship course instructor and professor, after reaching out to her for help on landing an internship. Prior to securing this position, I applied to ten separate internships and have either been told that positions have been filled by email or simply never heard from those job listings ever again. I was reaching the deadline to secure a position for the course so I’m thankful for the help I received from my professor which led to me applying for the internship at Image & Visual Communications and getting an interview. The interview was done through zoom with my supervisor himself, who asked questions about the type of design work I do, the type of equipment and design programs I use, and my previous work experiences. After the interview I was offered the position and I accepted since I was reaching my deadline, but also because the duties associated with the role sounded similar to my previous job of Production Assistant at The Cubed Effect, LLC; a video production company in Brooklyn. As a result, I felt reassurance that I would be able to do the work and use my previous experiences working there to help in my internship in some way. I’m looking forward to what I might do at the company and what I might learn that would allow me to grow my career as a designer.

For my Internship course, I applied and earned a position with Image & Visual Communications, a design publications company. Image & Visual Communications is a public company located in a multi-floored building in Brooklyn with its main office on the 6^th floor. The company is the official office of communications for a public educational institution, involved in publications associated with it.

The company’s main focus is to provide promotional materials for the institution in any shape or form from posters to video production. The size of the company is relatively small, mainly being run by a couple of designers in charge of their own separate projects. Due to Image & Visual Communication’s association and main client with the institution as well as being the official office of communications, I would assume the company has been around since the institution was founded if not less.

I don’t seem to work in any given department for as stated before, the company is relatively small only run by a small group of designers; my department is also my role of being intern/assistant.