Author: Amaris Marte

Image source: http://kavyar.com/new-face-magazine

I started working for a magazine company, it is located in California but their are many workers and interns around the USA so it is flexible with having some of the staff doing online work. I would say it is a small company but growing to be worldwide.

The company was founded in the mid of 2014-2016 and then was also branched to two companies that focuses on different areas of the magazine world. The department I work at is the graphic design, but I have been doing publications and social media posts.

Image Source: https://www.herzing.edu/blog/how-internships-can-benefit-you-personally-and-professionally

As I started looking for internships, I came across one on Chegg that seemed interesting to me because I thought how it would be to work at a magazine company. Once I got a reply back I had to a design test to see how they can my graphic design work and see if they would like to continue with me. The next step was to have a phone interview with the CEO which was great conversation and to learn what their company had to offer; my internship is until the end of May since I started late but she was very generous to have me on board.

My role within the company as their graphic designer is to create beautiful imagery for their social media posts so that it can be approved and send out to their social medias such as Instagram, Facebook, etc. I also took up the challenge in doing publications since my boss saw I had the potential to do more and learn from her coworkers. I designed a couple of publications that first starts as the Editors write out the article then send it to me to design the layout of the article and pass it along for critiques to fix.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-face-magazine/about/

Image Source: https://blog.axcethr.com/the-dos-and-donts-of-workplace-dress-codes

With working online, I haven’t had the chance to see my coworkers nor my boss face to face. When we have discussions its more on the professional messaging on the workplace via Slack or Trello. When I work on the assignments given to me, I do work on them in my room with comfortable attire so that I can work for long hours on a assignment and take breaks in between. I do work each week 15 hours so when I receive work to do I break it up so I can have a great outcome of the design work I’m doing.

Image Source: Designed by Amaris Marte

So far, the past week with the company I’m working with has been a great experience since I had a couple of assignments, I was able to create different magazines and social media that will look nice for them with the theme I went with was a colorful and dark environment since at the time they had fall photos I used from their collection. I’ve learned and discussed things with my coworkers and asking lots of questions that can me understand how the company works and doesn’t. Even though they are in California the communication has been very good and meeting the staff that are friendly people; made me feel right at home.

Image Source: Designed by Amaris Marte

So far working at the internship has been a great experience for me as I got to know some skills that benefits me in their company. With creating their article, I was mentored by someone in the editorial area to help me build my article on a topic I was given. In the middle it has been a struggle since one assignment I did accept but I had trouble in since I didn’t have much experience in which were the articles and with that, I felt it was a mess-up on my part by not communicating about that, but I got to get back up and amaze them on a article I did for the their website with the help from a mentor. Even though this wasn’t a collaborative project I did get help from someone in the editorial area, and we were able to communicate using Slack and it became great.

Image Source: https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image mediatype=illustration&phrase=empathy+office

So far it has been well working at the internship I am at now. Things have been slow because of the amount of work that is not given to me to work but I know it will start to pick up soon; With the projects I have been doing I have been enjoying them because I am learning how to do publications and using photoshop more than I am used to doing. With the skills I had before I feel I am doing better in using the Adobe software more so with Photoshop since I haven’t used it as much or had much experience in. I had to do a project on dealing with stress as in creating an article that fits well with the theme of dealing with anxiety and stress; since the article was provided for me, I just had to design the publication and input the text. Everyone has been helpful and guiding me to getting the just of the company and advising me in creating these publications.

#6 Improving my skills – Tagged

Image resource: https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=key+takeaway

Throughout my time working at the magazine company, I have learned useful skills and advice as to how design works in a company, reaching out to peers and the amount of work put in for a company. When finishing up my last few hours left, I feel that my skills and designing has changed with learning more on Photoshop with editing and to manipulate images that worked for me.. The takeaway I would say working for the company I will keep with me is always make sure to communicate with your supervisor as to making sure you understand and reach out when you’re not sure how to do a certain assignment so that you can improve yourself. Also, when you need help to ask or have someone mentor you as to how the project should be or at least the key points of meeting the requirements for the employer.