The Catalyst is a board game cafe with a large library of games that is ongrowing as the store buys and gets donations. The store includes a general area for people to play games near the cafe area, with a basement level with private rooms. One of the biggest things the store advertises is their two big events – the Trading Card Game (TCG) nights and Dungeons and Dragons (DND) nights.
I’m very happy and proud of the work i’ve done for this organization. I feel a sense of joy knowing i’m also doing this for an organization that I feel a connection with, knowing they care so much for the rights of New Yorkers and me, obviously, being a New Yorker.
There are different lessons I learned pertaining to designing, but also being in a remote work environment. One of the things I learned was that it’s okay to explore different design programs, you don’t always have to stick to the ones you’re used to. When doing design work I basically only work with Adobe products, which i’ve been using for over 10 years now, but exploring outside of that and using Canva was a very easy switch. This doesn’t mean i’ll switch to only using Canva, but it’s nice to have it as a program to use when i’m doing projects that aren’t very high demanding and more on the simple side.
Another thing I am big about now is communication between workers. It’s such a simple concept, but being clear with others and making sure they understand what you’re saying as well is a huge part of design. As i’m supposed to be designing to get their message across, I want to make sure they’re also understanding the message in my designs, if that’s not being clearly shown, then you have to adapt.
I really respect everyone i’ve met at the organization I interned at. I love seeing people work in an environment that they’re passionate about and learning first hand about the messages they’re trying to put out into the world. My mentor/coordinator through this internship has been incredible to work with, he’s very clear with his instructions, he is very open with his communications, and he’s good at communicating his feelings about my work.
Overall, it was a very good experience. I’m very thankful for the opportunity I was given and I feel more passionate and confident in my work. Going forward I hope to have similar experiences to this.
I was able to attend one of the major events held by the organization, which included us meeting at City Hall to raise awareness for a better budget for CUNY students. Due to my position being remote, this was the first time I was able to put faces to a name for a lot of the people i’d been emailing. It was interesting feeling like I already know these people even thought it was my first time truly meeting them because of our online communications.
During this event we held signs and communicated with different concil district members asking for their time to talk about things like restoring and expanding opportunity programs like ASAP and ACE, funding and hiring more faculty and advisors to help support students and guide them to graduate on time, etc.
The amount of time we had to get our message across was pretty short, this event taking 2 hours total. During this time I was able to talk to other people in the organization, get to know how they got involved, and importantly introduce myself and what i’m doing for the organization, trying to put myself out there to get as much work as possible. I felt the people i’d previously emailed with seem more open with talking to me over email afterwards as well, showing me that in the future if I work any type of remote position, going to company events can be very helpful and open a better dialogue between you and your co-workers.
During my time working, a majority of my projects have been for social media. This comes with different things I find very easy and mildly difficult.
For social media, you have to keep in mind people will scroll and they will scroll past your post quick. If there’s too many words on a post as soon as they see it, they will scroll. One, using eye-catching colors, usually red, to grab someones attention and then using buzzer words to try to keep the attention. For instagram, it’s usually having your first slide be something alerting of an event coming up, making sure to show either what that event is and a date, or just the event. The next slide will comprise of the rest of the information, things like dates if it wasn’t included on the first page, locations, any kind of URL, etc. This was the format I found easiest to work with while still getting all the information needed out into the open.
There are different needs for different times of the year for the organization, so for now there was a lot of talk about the primaries, voting in general, and getting the attention of politicans with emailing, calls, or outside work.
One of the biggest things i’m learning so far is using new programs to get certain work done easier. Before this I did most or all of my work on any Adobe related product, usually Illustrator or Photoshop, but for this I used a program called Canva. The program itself is very straight-forward, allowing you the options to easily add free use images or graphics into your work.
Additionally, the concept of using different color palettes for different topics was really interesting to me. It’s such a simple concept in a general sense, but as a designer it had me wondering how long it took for them to come up with each color combination and how long it took to make each work.
In terms of learning about the industry, i’ve learned a lot about communicating with others and keeping an open dialogue with them. When working remotely, people can get distracted by every day occurrences, so sometimes I would have to email someone again to get a response. I spent most of my time during this internship emailing, researching, and designing.
My internship is with a non-profit in New York who advocates for the rights of New Yorkers in many different ways. It was founded in 1976 and over the decades has recuited tens of thousands of community-based members all over New York state. Their main focuses include public health, voting rights, environmental issues, etc. They take a very hands on approach with everything they do and have collaborated with many different organizations and schools.
Recently, they’ve been doing work in Syracuse adcovating for environmental protections. They’ve been featured in publications like thedailyorange, an independent student newspaper published in Syracuse, discussing a press conference that occured to call out the state’s government for its inaction in regards to environmental protection.
They’ve also spent a lot of time talking about the primaries and reminding people of what we’re voting for. The organization even went to City Hall directly to ask polticians to consider certain policies that would benefit the people of New York.
Shepard Fairey vs. The Associated Press is a really interesting case in terms of what constitutes as copyright infringement and how that should be dealt with.
There’s an interesting line that this case teeters on, which is that could Fairey’s work be considered transformative rather than being a blatant copy of the A.P.’s original photograph. I do think Fairey took a lot of wrong actions in this case that didn’t help him in the long run, like destroying documents and fabricating others to conceal the fact he used that photograph. Using someone else’s photo as well, even if it’s their own interpretation of the work should constitute some kind of credit where credit is due.
I do think it’s fair he doesn’t do any jail time, I don’t think it’s particularly that necessary for a case like this, especially that it’s stated that Fairey claimed he wasn’t receiving any kind of profit from the work being used. The Associated Press getting financial compensation does make sense to me though, the photographer never gave clear permissions for their work being used which makes the work not fair-use. Fair-use to me is when an artist puts their work online and specifically states it’s free for anyone to use whether credit is given or not. Ethically, most of the time you still should be giving credit, but in that situation it’s different. In this situation, no permissions were given in a free-use way or getting any type of permissions way.
To tie this all together, I think how they handled the case makes sense and it should be a case people use as an example in other cases of simular situations.
In the past, there have been times where I find myself wanting to copy others work because I think it’s amazing. However, I don’t believe I have ever fully copied someone elses work, but have tried to emulate it very closesly. I find myself liking color palettes or specific elements and I would sometimes try to recreate in and make it different, but it sometimes would still feel weird to me.
It’s good to know what is considered free-use content and which is copyrighted. As a creative, you learn the importance of giving credit where it’s due in a different way than others may understand. Simple things like giving credit and getting the persons permission before using it in your own way, even if it’s just posting it to your social media goes a long way.
If I ever use imagery from someone else that isn’t free-use, I always give credit. This can be using a link to the original post or article or etc, or posting a link to their social media handles with the work. We live in such a weird time where people find it so easy to steal other peoples work, especially on social media, but it really is the bare minimum to show artists support by crediting them in their own work.
When starting my internship, I was not required to sign any type of NDA. The type of work we do as a non-profit doesn’t fully call for one, but understanding the importance of an NDA is still very important. The only type of agreement i’ve had to sign since beginning this internship was the internship agreement form for the course itself. When not having an NDA, I feel it’s still important to communicate with the people you’re working with and see where their comforts lie in terms of the work you’re doing. Showing your process and opening the door for changes and improvements goes a long way.
NDA’s or a Non Disclosure Agreement is an agreement between the company and person they’re hiring to not disclose certain information about the company to others. The contract is important to make sure both parties are protected in different ways, which could include not giving out personal information of any kind or any intellectual property.
I haven’t been using outside imaging in my assignments other than non-copyrighted pngs and the companies logo. Most of the work i’ve done is text-heavy, focusing on getting information out without it being overpowering. Since it’s a non-profit, it seems they use mostly their own imaging for projects and everything i’ve used is free-use, so there’s no issues of anything legal coming up in the future. The one thing I was told about when it came to the company is that the companies logo needed to be in certain colors, there are different variations for different assignments, and that the logo must be placed in certain areas on any project.
In my projects, I mostly used mini illustrations. It’s important to make sure the things you’re using if you’re not directly paying for them from an outside source is to make sure they’re free use. Free use content has been a game changer for me and many others, giving a small flare to work. It’s important to use those illustrations sparingly though. In the Use of Illustration by AIGA, they talk about how royalty-free and stock serve more for a decorate feature, which is what I was using them for in my work. Though, they also say if it’s just used to fill space, it’s lessened the value of the final project, which is something to keep in mind when adding those things as well.
