Week 12 Assignment – Guest Speaker James Levin

Posted on May 6, 2017 by AshleyV

There was a lot of useful information all throughout Mr. Levin’s presentation. He talked about how leaving college to pursue a career is a change, that doesn’t have to be scary and that we all grow from. He discussed knowing your “career sequence” so you can easily tell people your story and who you are. He went over a little on resumes, what to have on cover letters, and networking.

A lot of graduates struggle with finding a job because the places they apply to do not match up. It’s important to narrow your search and research companies and job titles. Spending the time to research will have better impact and chances of getting the chance at the job. And I think this is really helpful to realize; there is always a lot of information and sometimes we just don’t know where to start looking, but researching can be a great energy saver.

I especially liked his talk about making the most of your internship. You may not be doing what you thought you would be, and it may not be exciting, but you’re still learning. I’ve learned a lot about how faculty at City tech work to help us students have the best opportunities, and it’s made me very interested in education. He also made a point about how we present ourselves even with little things. I try to always keep connect with my clients and my supervisor has acknowledge this, and how I try to step into my clients shoes to understand their needs. This shows what kind of person I am not only to my clients, but to my coworkers, and that kind of things lasts.

This ties into those transferable skills we’ve been going over a lot in class. It’s the core skills and can be used in many places that give them value, not the programs we now.

Week 6 Assignment-Project Management Systems

Posted on March 26, 2017 by AshleyV

Project management systems help a team plan and organize all the parts of a project. These projects can take up to weeks to complete, so this software helps to estimate the time it will take, time spent on different takes, and even budget the cost for the project based on the time spent on it. This kind of software are especially used with teams or groups that have multiple people working together on the project. Everyone has the ability to see where others are at in the project, what tasks are completed or still in progress, and can also collaborate and share aspects of the project.

Some kinds of this software include Workstack, Basecamp, Freedcamp, and Miestercamp.

Designers can have an easy single place where everyone on their team has access to the project information, that is also easy and clear to sort through. They will not have to sort through emails and save time from having meetings to keep going over the progress of the project. And if they needed to show how far along to managers it’s all in one single place.

Week 4 Assignment- Guest Lecture

Posted on March 25, 2017 by AshleyV

During our talk with Zach Bokuniewicz we discussed steps to getting an internship, what to do when you’re working at one, and using it as a stepping stone to future jobs. This included things like branding yourself, and getting befriending your coworkers and clients. One solid piece of advice I will be using during my internship is to try and make the projects work in my favor. I want to produce better work that I want to add to my portfolio, as well as keeping in mind future projects and jobs I will want. Then try and move the project in those directions if possible.

Internship Journal 3

Posted on March 14, 2017 by AshleyV

The beginning of March has been a lot of juggling assignments. While I finished off the last keep project with AIR, I’ve met two new clients, one of which was another last minute project.

The first was a new client with FC(Faculty Commons) from the scholarship program, CREAR Futuros. My job with them is to create branding with their new existing logo which was created by someone who left FC some time ago. It’s the first time I’ll be doing something like this; working with material from a person I never met before sounds intimidating but it will give me a chance to put my spin into it.

From my meeting with my client I created a contract, helping to have an overview of what we discussed so that we’re on the same page. FC’s guidelines to contracts is that they include a timeline summary, and keep track of when it is updated. Something I will defiantly use for myself with future clients since it’s very effective and flexible.

Lastly I got to work with the African American Studies department, for a promo poster on a film screening of Shirley Chisholm. My client and I were both very excited from what it was about, and she encouraged me to use my skills as an illustrator for it. Because of time constraints my design was fairly simple, but it worked with the large amount of information. My client was very happy with the result and so was I, it’s something I’ll be adding to my portfolio and hopefully I will be able to do more similar work.

Internship Journal 2

Posted on February 28, 2017 by AshleyV

This week I was asked to design certificates for the AIR(Assessment & Institutional Research) department. It was a last minute assignment but considering I didn’t have much work to do at the time I accepted. Thankfully AIR is in the same office so communicating with my client was much faster than it was with others. The process of me sketching and over over the design with them was quick and easy enough. What took long was getting the final information for all the names that needed to be printed.

There was a lot of waiting for people to RSVP for their names to be included, and triple checking we had all the names correctly spelled. This step was very important though, as it was only 22 certificates, so any small errors would have been very large in comparison. Making sure to contact my client for updates was very important with keeping the deadline.

Most projects at my internship are simply done on regular white paper, but for this we got to go a little different with a cream paper textured card stock. To add a more personal touch it was hand signed by the department head and Provost instead of electronically.

This was the first project where I had to be diligent with my time, changing what was a priority, and delivering on time. It is something I will defiantly keep in mind during future times when I may have a similar situation.

Internship Journal 1

Posted on February 19, 2017 by AshleyV

(Repost from assignment)

I had already begun applying to some internships with help from the coordination site but with no responses back. Faculty Commons got posted about needing new interns and since I had once applied for the position and got as far as the interview I decided to apply again. I felt more confident this time since I had some experience working under someone and more material in my portfolio. I wanted to seem organized and self branded, so I made such to keep a similar design through my resume, cover letter, and portfolio.

When I got accepted for the interview I prepared myself for their questions. Since I already went through an interview with them before I tried to make sure I had good and through out answers for questions I fumbled before. Making sure I had clear examples of times I had trouble with projects or group partners and how I overcame those challenges were a main part of my preparation. I also had one of my professors go through my portfolio for feedback on the presentation and what I could add to it.

Sure enough, getting my things ready and set for the morning of the interview helped me not feel nervous and therefore at ease during it. Meeting with the supervisor Professor Julia Jordan again, she assured I was more confident in my abilities then the last time I saw her, and I was pleased she could also see it.