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.

After interning for nearly 6 weeks now, I’d proudly say that I am very much enjoying it. Circumstances this year are very unique as compared to every internship class ever taken in COMD at City Tech. This is the first time ever where students are interning remotely and where it is becoming the norm. Interning in person would have been far more beneficial because we would have been able to experience the real work life before leaving City Tech. Although we are working virtually, we still practice the same skill set that we would at an actual workplace.. it’s just done through technology instead. These skills would include communication, team work, problem solving, and leadership skills.

One thing I see myself learning is acting upon and practicing my leadership skills. This skill is needed when Isana sends out work to us without setting up a zoom meeting. Someone, out of the three interns, needs to take the initiative of responding to her and letting her know that we’ve received everything and understand it. I tend to take the lead on behalf of my coworkers and I, to respond and let her know things are running smoothly. This skill is also needed when we are given a task and Isana tells us to create a shared google doc to organize our information and assign the intern’s work. In both of these situations I find myself responding attentively and taking the lead of getting these tasks started.

The culture of my “workplace” would be described as cool and calm… which would technically be the culture of my home. Due to COVID-19 and pandemic guidelines, we have to work from home, so in reality.. we don’t have a workplace. Although we are working virtually, my supervisor ensures that we meet via Zoom at least twice a week. There she gives us feedback on our previous projects, introduces our new tasks, and updates us on any additional information such as time sheets and days off.

After my supervisor, Isana gives us our tasks, she turns off the Zoom meeting and lets us do our work until a question arises or if she needs to contact us. She has made it her duty to provide a flexible work schedule with us due to the pandemic circumstances. There has been a time where she assigned a task and we had to stop immediately to fulfill a project that was needed ASAP. The other interns and I had to make edits on a handbook while we got the urgent message to stop. We had to create a social media campaign for the IE office that was needed for the following week. We stopped our work, tuned into Zoom and was assigned our new project. This task made me realize what the pressure of a urgent deadline feels like. Unlike school projects where we have weeks to brainstorm, concept and sketch our ideas, I only had a matter of 4 hours to come up with a concept and ideas. After thinking it through with my co-workers, we came up with a data-driven concept and started designing an instagram, twitter, and facebook post that following Monday.

During our week 3 of internship class we are asked to join a virtual networking event. I decided to choose a UI/UX webinar that explained UX case studies from the content of a UX designers professional portfolio. Case studies are important to UX design because it shows how the designer thinks, adapts, cooperates, and ultimately solve challenges. The title of the webinar was “Thinkful Webinar | UX/UI Design: Designing A UX Case Study” and hosted by Thinkful webinar that hosts webinars to provide information on high-growth tech career.

The topics covered in this webinar were what is a case study?, how case studies are essential to your portfolio, and how to make a case study stand out on a portfolio. During it, I learned that UX designers are essential to both the research and visual design of the topic and you can be either or both. Case studies show the structure and research behind the UX design. It is important to look at other case studies to build off of and gain inspiration for your own. The overall goal of a case study is to show that you can solve a problem and convey the proper research methods to deliver the idea.

One of the speakers during this webinar was Jon Haines: https://www.jonhaines.design

My role for Brooklyn College is to work for the Office of the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness as a Creative Designer Intern. I came across this opportunity on the City Tech Internship page while actively looking for internships. Due to COVID-19 and the unusual WFH set up, this internship is remote. During my Zoom interview I was greeted by Isana Leshchinskaya, Assessment and Accreditation Specialist, who then proceeded to ask me a series of questions. I was asked to tell her about myself, projects I’ve worked on in school, what programs am I familiar with, what are the projects that I am most proud of, how do some of the Adobe apps work and more! Conversation flowed naturally as there were an exchange of laughs here and there making the interview a little less nerve wrecking. Practicing interviewee questions beforehand really made me self-aware of what to expect as well as learning a bit more about myself before actually interviewing.

I work with two other interns whom I am familiar with and have had class with. Together we complete tasks such as creating social media posts for the IE office. We often collaborate to brainstorm our concepts, taglines, and poster sizing. These posters are designed for students as well as faculty members to inform them of what issues the IE office is tackling or to simply inform them about opportunities and events taking place throughout the IE office.

The company that I am working for this semester is CUNY Brooklyn College . Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College was New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college. Brooklyn College has a student enrollment of 17,811 students, 14,970 of which are undergraduates and 2,841 graduate, who come from 143 nations and speak 92 languages. With it’s vast Urban culture and mission to educate immigrants and working-class people, BC ensures success for all of it’s students and faculty members.

I am currently interning for the Office of the Associate Provost Institutional Effectiveness. This team is responsible for carrying out specific strategies meshed around the college’s mission. They coordinate and collaborate plans that act as a guidance for the student’s college career at BC. As an intern, my job is to create banners, flyers and posters that promote the duties of the IE office that is currently being shared on social media due to social distancing learning.

The first news article “Brooklyn College named “most ethnically diverse” campus announces that Brooklyn College is one of the most diverse amongst CUNY colleges. The college’s mission is to provide education and equal opportunity for immigrants coming from all over the world. As we can see, they were able to fulfill their mission as being ranked with this mighty title. Brooklyn college houses 30 percent white, 24 percent Black, 22 percent Hispanic and 19 percent Asian students. The second article is “The 24 colleges with the best return on investment” which shows how BC is number 11 on the list of colleges that provides the best return on investment towards their students.