Following ethical guidelines within graphic design is important because it shapes the brand and contains its values while following legal copyright precautions. Every company has branding guidelines that follows the brand’s signature look. Guidelines are needed so that designer’s can legally use fonts, images, and copyright without any forms of plagiarism or the misuse of another designer’s work.
Before starting my internship, I had to sign an agreement form. This form asked for personal information as well as listing the responsibilities of the interns. It also listed terms and regulations that are needed to be followed. It acts as a reminder to the students and employers so that there is no miscommunication of what is expected to be completed within the internship.
Interning for Brooklyn College has been a positive experience for me so far. After working on social media campaigns, maps, and book covers, I wouldn’t have been able to complete it without the company brand guidelines. My first assignment on the first day was to create a geometric facebook banner. Being that I never worked as a professional creative designer for an institution, I instantly forgot to look at the color guidelines before starting the project. At school we are usually open to creating our own concepts for projects with given instructions which is why I didn’t think twice about refrenfrecning the guidelines. When I presented my work later that day, my supervisor liked the design but BC would have not been able to use it because I used the wrong colors. These guidelines follow the strict branding of BC which includes primary colors, secondary colors, typefaces, photography and social media guidelines, stationary, and more.
For most projects we are given specific instructions of what is needed and each intern is usually expected 2-3 designs by the end of the day. We have only been using vector icons for our designs as BC has its own library of stock photo images but we have not used them yet. When we are given instructions for the day, all of the interns gather and create a brief where we decide on what font, format sizing, and colors we want to use based off of the guidelines and instructions given for that day. Everything must be consistent and uniformed when assigning the brief. It is important to maintain brand guidelines within our designs so that we contain the professionalism of Brooklyn College as well as delivering the right messages across to our audience.
