Being that I am in my last year, there have been quite a couple projects where I chose to go a more photography-based route, and sometimes I would be looking for a shot I necessarily weren’t capable of capturing myself. I utilize Unsplash.com, it is a website that allows designers like ourselves to use free stock images for personal work. What I like the most about this site is when ever you download a photo from them, it displays a prompt that shows the photographers credited information, which I always implement into my work wherever I choose to implement the photo I download.

After reading the article about the Fairey copyright case, I believe that Fairey’s defense was clearly unethical. A designer doesn’t forget where they sourced their images, or just simply the fact of whether its their own or not. For Fairey to try and convince others it was a different photo then try to clear it up after that plan didn’t work is just a clear example of how Fairey chose to be unethical rather than do things the proper way and either purchase rights to the photograph or gain the permission to just credit the curator. Fairey isn’t any amateur artist either, as stated in the article as well, he was already known for using this style before, and for someone who utilizes portraits a lot, you would expect him to be familiar with using photographs which weren’t originally his, just a clear example of someone breaking the simple rules of design ethics.

Sources

https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/shephard-fairey-is-fined-and-sentenced-to-probation-in-hope-poster-case/

https://unsplash.com/

While creating my promotions for specific products, I was informed by my supervisor to only use content from the brands official website (Logos, Photos, Product Description), due to my job sites legal restrictions with these brands. This also includes when I need to use any content from the stores online market, for the most part I usually utilize the company site for their logo. I personally did not have to sign any documents pertaining to any non-disclosure agreements, my supervisor was pretty open about the usage of the company’s content. Now even though there is no signed documentation, does not mean I myself am not still choosing to treat my client’s information as confidential information. As stated is chapter 1 of AIGA Design and Business Ethics, “A professional designer treats all work and knowledge of a client’s business as confidential.” this statement applies whether or not there is a signed agreement between the client and designer.

Sources

https://www.aiga.org/design-business-and-ethics

Gordon Parks is quite the pinnacle of history. A pioneer for his people and culture. A young man from Kansas City became one of the Countries most historical photojournalist. His cause was always revolved around his people, the black community, always for bringing awareness and the truth to peoples eyes the one way that couldn’t be altered (well not yet at least), through his photography. Some of his best work was created during civil rights movement, capturing the true horror that the black community was facing and only the increase of heated race relations across the country. He also captured how poverty was ravishing the country in the more urban communities. Parks was also a movie director, his “Shaft” movies were iconic and also hold a place in my deepest memories, my father loved Shaft and growing up movies were a big part of how I spent time with my father, I was unaware of Parks involving in the Shaft movies until now, but just also goes to show how sometimes the creation could outshine the creator, some people may be familiar with Shaft, but not Gordon Parks, which for all that he has done should not be the case, but his work spoke for itself and that’s exactly what it is still doing nearly 15 years after his passing. 

This week my Supervisor Samantha and I prioritized the company Facebook page since the week prior was focused on their Instagram. Once Samantha showed me the Facebook page, I already realized that the audience was very different. on their Instagram page, a lot of their followers and people who are just more easy to connect with were on the younger wide, I would say about 20-30 years old. Yet on Facebook, the following consisted of much older and mature people, at least 40-60 years old. This week’s outreach goal was much more a challenge, since for starters a lot of the older folks don’t use the separate messaging system Facebook has to offer, or some are just unaware it even exists. Most of the people I reached out to directly did not contact me back, but there were a couple people I was able to redirect to our page and utilize the companies online ordering website. Overall, I think I am doing very well for the position acquired and really like the coworkers as well.

So my supervisor and I have decided that she would want me to focus on the Company’s instagram account this week and try to gain some more customers through there first. That’s exactly where I started, after receiving permission to look through some old customer inquires in the Instagram message center, I was gaining a better knowledge on how to introduce myself and spark conversation with customers about their pet’s wellbeing. I had brushed up a quick ad to promote these new Hemp-based Treats the store brought onto the shelves that had a lot of supplemental benefits. By the end of the week I had reached out to about 20 different people, being which 16 responded, and actually, about 5-6 people actually came into the store and bought some! My supervisor did not hesitate to let me know that my outreach was already showing results. 

After the first week being basically research and planning my approach the second week was the start of actual work. The Supervisor, Samantha, had asked me to come into the store in person and experience a day into the life of the employees. I just sat down with some employees on shift, after introducing ourselves, breaking the ice, and showing them some prior work, I began my questions. I was trying to figure out what type of Look and Mood they wanted to capture on their socials, and the attitude they wanted to embody and display toward their audience. This company is a very family-oriented business, not implying that the Employee’s are blood-related to one another, but their bonds with each other are as if they were Blood-Related. They also have a very confident work ethic which is backed by their wide knowledge of Pet Nutrition, this has been pushing me to gain further Pet nutrition knowledge as well, to benefit my ads context, and make sure the stuff I’m saying is accurate, and also just for my own self gain because I myself would like a pet and to be able to properly raise it. Like did you know dogs don’t actually have a sense of taste? They are driven by the sense of smell. Dogs are also naturally lactose-intolerant, and Goat’s Milk is better recommended.

After a month and a half of searching for an internship, I have finally acquired one. The Job site is a small business located on Staten Island, which is very local for me. They focus in Pet supply sales, but have been trying to further their audience, and become more than just a local small business. They have been trying to gain a wider audience through social media accounts, but they say the increase in customers has not really grown. My responsibilities as their Social Media Intern include but do not limit: Maintaining their Social Media Pages, creating ads to be shared on our pages and directly to potential future customers, in hopes to widen their audience and bring in more customers.

I have finally heard back from SLAM Media, and unfortunately, they did not choose me for the Junior Design Intern. Although I was disappointed, I just realized this is not my first rodeo, and rejection is the key for future acceptance. I will be reaching out to the small business that was looking for a Social Media intern that had given me the choice of joining their team.