The program I mainly use at my internship is InDesign. Because of this, one rule have been made very clear to me. The rule is to package your files. I’ve learned to always package the InDesign file if someone is taking over a project because if the file hasn’t been packaged, then you won’t have all the link and will have to spend time looking for every missing link. It’s always good to backup your files as well. If you only have one file of a project and it gets damaged, you are stuck with that file and all the problems that come with it. The problems that could occur with damaged files are taking a long time to export a PDF, slow reaction time when working on the file and not being able to open the file, resulting in having to do the entire project from scratch with nothing but printouts to work off of. Knowing this information will make any designer’s life a little bit easier.

I have learned how to properly write and answer emails. Even though everyone is near each other, they have their own jobs to do and are very busy. However, if you need to get feedback on a project you are working on for them, then you would have to watch until their lunchtime to answer them. Luckily, everyone at my internship answers their emails very quickly, making it the most effective way to communicate with my clients.

I do more than just design work at IFCC. I do non design tasks as well. One of them is formatting PowerPoints to be consistent. When I had no assignments to do, my client came to me with six PowerPoint presentations, each with 30+ slides and asked me to format it so all the logos were on the same place on each slide, all the text was the same font and size and anything else that would help them look appealing to work with. I took on the assignment and while it wasn’t hard at all, I have been using InDesign for a while now. I was so used to having a lot of options and easier ways to fix things that when I tried applying the same thing to PowerPoint, it didn’t work. It required a lot of focus and precision but I was able to make all six presentations look nice and consistent.

When I have to meet with a client, my day starts the same as any other but I dress nicer come off as professional. First, when I get to my desk and set up, I send a confirmation email to my client, asking if today’s meeting is still on. Once I get their confirmation, I wait for the time by doing assignments given to me. Once it’s time, I pack up my laptop and head to the meeting place. One time, I met my client in a conference room on the floor they reside on. We discuss changes and I show them what it looks like on my laptop. If there are any files they have to send me that has to go with the project, they send it to me and I add them. Once the meeting is done, I leave with the revision sheet and keep working on it while keeping them posted via email.