Coming into this company which had mostly a marketing team and only one Designer, I didn’t know what  to expect. At first it was hard because the first week I was the only designer (The Lead designer was on Vacation that week), I was submitting all the projects in time, but the VP was used to getting them completed much faster and I also struggled a little with the brands guidelines. Thankfully these are problems I faced only in the first few weeks and it got much easier as it went on.  For my final evaluation the Lead Designer told me that I understood the brands aesthetics and improved my time management skills significantly over time. I agreed and realized my biggest mistake at first was that I took my time  instead of submitting my work  faster to get more feedback.

They gave me  a variety of projects to work on that required skills in Print Design, Product Design, UI Design, and etc. I  even got the opportunity to work on some big projects for the companies re-branding. Overall, I think I did excellent work at Webcollage . This experience encourages me to go the route of a Visual or UI Designer possibly in the E-Commerce industry thanks to the mentorship of the lead designer and rest of the co-workers who were all great and made me feel like I was a part of their team.

For a while the company had planned a Holiday Party which I helped create the flyer for and a marketing intern had been advertising for it. It was set to take place on December 6 which was also my last day interning.  My team encouraged me to go to this event and I agreed.

It was advertised that  we had to wear “Cocktail Attire” .so for the first time ever I  wore a dark suit with a tie. Normally I would wear casual clothing, but I had to wear a suit or I would have looked under dressed there.

The event took place at Hotel Gansevoort which was a very sophisticated hotel located not too far from the workplace and you could tell many other business were hosting their own events here as well.  The party itself was inside a big bar with an outside rooftop area that had it’s own fire place. There were  many waiters walking around offering various party food and drinks you could get for free.

To my surprise, I was one of the first to arrive despite coming exactly on time and my team did not arrive until much later, so I got a chance to chat with a lot of the employees in Webcollage who I normally didn’t talk to. There were  even people there who no longer worked  for the company and it was interesting hearing their stories as well. However, the fun didn’t really start until everyone from my close  team arrived since they were the closest thing the company had to a creative team. All in all, this was my first time going to a holiday party for a company and I had a blast. It was refreshing seeing everyone in this kind of free environment and a great way to finally say goodbye.

The latest project I have been working on lately is very interesting and something that’s totally new for me. I am working on an employee welcome kit that includes a Water Bottle, USB drive, T-shirt, Notebook and Mouse Pad. My job is to come up with the designs for all these items that will be given to the employees.  I work with a small team that consists of four marketers and one lead designer. Using websites/apps like Basecamp and Microsoft Teams we communicate with one another and they help me by providing information, specs and giving feedback for my work. With their help, I was able to successfully come up with the mock-up and design specs for this project.  

It has already been 2 months since I started working for Webcollage and I have learned a lot during that period of time. There really is no “typical day” here as sometimes it can be quite hectic with lots of work needed to be done in a short period of time, but there are also days where I can take my time. The work I do is always different, but it’s all in some way related to Design.

for the first week the Lead Designer, Ognen was on vacation and HE let me sit at his desk, so I got a little taste of what it was like to be in his shoes.  Ognen left me a “starter kit” folder on his computer which helped me get familiar with the brand’s guideline and I also got a chance to look at all the past design work he did.

One of the first projects I worked on was a template for a social media post that welcomed new employees with a small profile picture and some text introducing them. My team liked the first designs I worked on. but they felt it was “too serious”. and the lead designer would say “This looks like something for a News company”, so I changed it to be more fun/colorful.  It was at this moment when I started to really understand the brand’s aesthetics and I haven’t had a problem since then.

The Webcollage office is on the 11^th floor of the Eleven building which is located on the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and W. 42^nd.  Usually I start at either 10 am or 12 am and the day ends by 5pm.

There are over 100 employees with their own work stations.  A few of the higher-ups have their own office room, but everyone else works within an open work space that contains its own Mac Book Pro with 2-3 monitors.  Even the lead designer Ognen has a similar desk as mine and he sits right next to me. Some employees wear formal clothing because they have to do business meetings, while others like me are allowed to wear casual clothing.

The floor itself is pretty big with one half full of work spaces and the other side with a lot of empty space that’s under construction at the moment because they are planning to add more stuff.  There are many meeting rooms with big screens where people can video chat with others from other parts of the world.

Outside of the work spaces there is a fully-stocked kitchen where you are allowed to eat at or take food to your office whenever you want. There is no specific time to take a lunch break, but sometimes Uana (The Vice President of Marketing) will invite us to a team lunch at some restaurant. There is also a game room where you can have play pool or video games.

My process of finding an internship started by signing up for various websites and applying to as many different companies that I could. I learned that responding to the most recent posting on Indeed.com got me faster responses. So that’s where I eventually heard back from this company called Webcollage, inc. They were looking for an unpaid Graphic Design intern position, promising on-the- job training and experience working on creative elements for marketing. Through e-mail we arranged for an on-site interview which I went to wearing business casual clothing and I brought with me printed examples of my portfolio.  For the first interview I spoke with their lead designer and brand expert Ognen Trpeski as well as two other marketing team members. They asked me questions like “Tell me about yourself?” , “what is your greatest accomplishment?”. “Which is your favorite work?”, “what is your design process like?” and I talked a lot about my portfolio.

they invited me to do a second interview, but this time I talked with their Vice President of Marketing, Uana and Human Resources Manager, Andre. This interview was similar to the first, but questions focused more about the company itself and how well I could fit in with the other employees. The very next day I got a call from Andre and he told me that I officially got the internship!

My role involves working with marketing team and providing creative ideas to help them achieve their goals as well as provide assistance to the lead Designer. I get the opportunity to make valuable contributions in the development and expansion of their marketing strategies.

Webcollage Inc. is a privately held company owned by Answers.com. They help brands, manufacturers and retailers publish product content online to push consumers into making decisions. Since its foundation in 1999, Webcollage has been used by over a thousand brands around the globe and has become the leading cloud-based platform for publishing product content. They have worked with many top online retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy, Costco and Target.

This article from Channel News describes how many of the top US retailers are now trying to compete with Amazon.com  by using Webcollage which has recently expanded its platform significantly with a new system called C.O.R.E. that provides in-depth analytical data to manufacturers detailing the effectiveness of their product page components. Also, The company recently hit a milestone after revealing that they have been working with Walmart for over 12-years as mentioned in this article

The company is headquartered inside the 11 Building of Time Square, New York with over 100 Employees. I am a Graphic Design intern, who works closely with the lead Designer and a small marketing team that includes a Manager, Vice President, Copy Writer, and a Marketing intern.