Working with the organization helped me gain more professional confidence as a designer. For instance, I learned how to have proper time management, better communication, be organized, and take initiative, furthermore, I gained more knowledge of different softwares. But overall I learned and got some experience on what it feels like to work in a marketing team with different people remotely.
A role model that I look up to within the organization is my director of the marketing department. The reason for this is because he is always professional and always giving me great feedback on how I can revise my work. Whenever i have a question about a certian task he takes his time and throughly explains what is needed to be done. He is also great at communicating and being direct, honest, and undestanding.
For my internship, I am currently working remotely. Though I am not in person for my internship this fits my schedule since I am also working at a full-time job. Working remotely helps me balance my work tasks for this internship and my full-time job. I’m glad that the organization is flexible with their interns when working with them, but I must admit I would like to get a sense of how it feels to work at a design studio with a team. If I were working in person as an intern it would help me get a sense of what to expect when working in a design studio.
Here are some of the tasks I have been assigned by my director so far, for my internship. On the top left and right are the newsletter articles I created. I began my design process by sketching out my ideas of what I wanted the layouts of the newsletters to look like. Then I chose the best layouts I felt were well designed and digitalized my sketch within Adobe InDesign. For each newsletter, I placed different elements within the composition to find a sense of balance while trying to keep the newsletter articles simple, clean, legible, and modern. For each article, I chose a specific image that was relatable to the reading. I needed to find a way to have contrast in the design so I began to implement different colors on certain elements or the text themselves. For each newsletter to have contrast within the text I also picked 2 different fonts to help separate certain text. Lastly, before I was done I needed to make sure all the text was aligned within the margins of the page. On the bottom left and right are mask designs I created. I was assigned to develop face masks for the organization and place them in mockups. For the masks, I tried to keep a minimalist style and tried using the elements found in the organization’s logo lastly I placed the organization’s name on the mask. All the tasks that were assigned to me got positive feedback from my director.
During the internship, my responsibilities for the marketing department is to mainly focus on designing the layouts of the newsletter articles I get assigned by my director. I am allowed to be as creative as I want to be. I can add anything to the design as long as it is legible and all the text is placed within one or two pages. I can choose any color, elements, and images for the design of the layout. All final files must be submitted via email to my director in a png format on or before the due date that was stated. But besides creating newsletter designs I can also be told to work on tasks like creating illustrations, and mockups.
Unity For Equality is a non-profit organization based in New York City. Founded in 2016, its mission is to work with individuals of all origins to help build economically stable and sustainable communities by helping those at or below the poverty line, students, the elderly, minorities, immigrants, and other members of the community who are compromised due to financial, age, health, lack of employment, or lack of education issues by providing services that enable such individuals to improve their quality of life.
When searching for an internship position, I first needed to ensure I had my resume updated and website portfolio ready. I applied to several intern positions but had no luck so I decided to seek help from my professor who quickly got me on track with obtaining an internship with a non-profit organization called Unity For Equality. She got me in contact with the founder of the organization, who then interviewed me right on the spot via phone. I was nervous at first but I kept my calm and got the internship. The founder of the organization explained to me what was going to occur within the internship. I was going to work with the marketing team for the organization and have to always report to the director of the marketing department. He will assign me tasks that needed to be completed like creating mockups, posters, illustrations, layouts, etc.
In the past, I have used other creators’ work mainly images. But within my personal projects, I always credit the photographer’s name and website from where I obtained a specific image. It is important to always credit other people’s work because it shows that you respect other people’s work and shows that you give recognition to the owner of the image. It is illegal and a serious crime to not credit another person’s work. you can face court orders, fines, or escalated legal actions. That is why I always source images from other creators when using them in my designs.
The Fairey Copyright case demonstrates that Shepard Fairey was fined two years of probation and $25,000 for tampering with evidence in the case. I felt this decision was well deserved for shepherd because you are not allowed to steal someone else’s photo and then lie about it. Not only that he was profiting from that poster from a photo he never sourced. Although he did admit to his crime I feel what was fined to him was well deserved. that is why it is important to always source other people’s work because you are giving recognition to the owner.
Source
I am working for a nonprofit organization and when it comes to using images all sources of images that I am using are free usable images that are also being credited. Even if I were to use an image from another creator, I will credit them in my work.
I did not sign a non-disclosure agreement for this internship at all. All the work that is being made is originally coming from and when it comes to the company’s logos and trademarks my director from the marketing department provided them for me as a resource if we ever were to do work that involves branding for the organization.
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
