Internship Journal #4: Working At IFCC

Interning at IFCC, I have learned a few things when it comes to design. The hierarchy for content is different for each project. You can’t use the same format for every project unless you’re doing something very similar like calendars. I’ve learned small things like how to align everything with a shortcut on InDesign so the sessions for events are listed in an organized matter. I learned how to use the eyedropper tool to sample typefaces and size instead of doing it manually. I learned how to use overlay on Photoshop to give an illusion of a picture with a tint of color on it. These small lessons were used to make the projects assigned to me look visually pleasing.

While I learned design tips and techniques at my internship, I also learned about the people of the industry. Most of my clients are not designers. They don’t know design as well as someone who has taken classes and studied it. Because of this, they come to me with projects that a designer can do for them and have it look nice and clean.

Aside from design work, I have also done clerical duties. One of them was changing the logo on Word documents and PowerPoints through Dropbox. My client gave me the invite to Dropbox and I went straight to work. It wasn’t every hard to do but there were a lot of files that needed changing. The weird thing was even when I changed it, it would say “Saved automatically to project” but it would still say the old logo. I had to cheat it a bit in order for the documents to save correctly. The good thing about this assignment was almost everyone uses Word and PowerPoint so knowing how to use these programs as well as work around it when it doesn’t work properly is a good skill to have.

IFCC is opened from 9 am-6 pm but I go in at 10 am. To access the entrance to IFCC without ringing the doorbell is with a key card that was given to me on my first day. It’s registered so it can only all the CUNY office doors. I go in and set up my desk for that day. I do all of my work on my laptop since most of the computers they have don’t have Adobe Creative Cloud. I work until 4 pm which is six hours of work in one day so I am allowed a 15 minute break. If I worked 8 hours, then I would be granted a 30 minute break. Other than that, I would work on design assignments from my clients in the building. We all communicate through email because the clients are busy doing their work but they respond to emails fairly quickly. Sometimes, we partake in small talk with other people in the room with us. Other than that, phone calls are being made so a lot of work is being done at this time.