Gregory Mitchell's ePortfolio

Since I received my internship through the BTTIP program I am required to attend Beyond Coding events every Tuesday from 6 – 9 pm. At the Beyond Coding events they have speakers who teach us about landing a job in the tech industry as new graduates. So far we have visited Tumblr, Crest, and Trello. Even though the events are mostly geared towards Software Developers I still learn some valuable lessons about networking among other things. We are also going to visit foursquare which I am looking forward to.

So far I have been noticing an improvement in my Adobe Illustrator skills. When I first started working at Project Economics I knew I wanted to create some very modern , simple pictograms. To do this I would be using the pen tool in Illustrator. I have used it in the past but not enough to be 100% comfortable with it. The ongoing task that I have been assigned with is to create a icon set for the company’s website. I’m excited about this task because I have never made such a large icon set before.  I have attached some of my progress on a similar task which was to create a modular image of energy saving items you could use in your home.

Since I am the only graphic designer hired I do not get to do any collaborative projects. The only time I have feedback from someone else on my work is when my boss takes a look at my progress to see how it is going. I enjoy having the freedom to create on my own but sometimes I will get stuck when working on a task and it can be difficult to get some fresh ideas. Usually when I’m stuck I will browse websites such as Pinterest, Designspiration, and Dribbble. I find looking at these sites will give me fresh ideas by seeing what other designers are currently making.

Since starting my position here at Project Economics I am learning a lot more about how energy supply works. Before I would just receive my power bill in the mail and just pay it, now I’m more informed and now I know what I’m paying for exactly and how I can save myself some money. If I hadn’t have received this opportunity to work here I would have continued to be ignorant about the world of energy retailers. Also this is my first time working in a office so I’m getting used to the whole office environment and working as a graphic designer and having meetings with my team to discuss our marketing direction.

A typical day at work for me I’ll show up around 10:00 am, I’ll turn on my laptop and open up Adobe Illustrator. If I finished a task the day before I will show my boss and get feedback. I will generally just be left to do design work on my own while the rest of the team members work on building the website. After lunch I will usually show my boss the progress I am making so for that day and then I will just work till 6:00 pm .

This is a new project I started working on. It is a timeline of the company’s history. I decided to use a personification of a light bulb to add a more modern youthful feel to this infographic.

timeline

The culture of the work place here is very laid back. There is no strict start time, everyone shows up sometime between 10:00 am and 11:00 am. There is no dress code so I usually like to wear a collared shirt with some khaki shorts.

Since it is in the Urban Future Lab the office is a large open space filled with several start up companies. Everyone has their own individual desk and then everyone in the company has their desk pushed together to create one large table . This provides a lot of communication between team members and a nice open environment.

I work 7 hours a day from Monday to Thursday. I have a hour for lunch which I usually take sometime between 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

This is what I made my first week of work. It is a infographic that displays the way the companies platform works. I didn’t have much freedom on this project in terms of design creativity.

My supervisor at Project Economics is Eric who is also the CEO and founder of the company. I received this job through the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program. The BTTIP program is a program that helps get students who are majoring in the technology field get internships in the Downtown Brooklyn area at tech companies.

The way the program works is that first you have to submit your resume. After they view your resume the program selects candidates to take part in a speed interview event at the school. At the interview event you are given three interviews at different companies. The next step is you take a online questionnaire which asks you to rank the companies you would like to work for in order. The companies take the same questionnaire and BTTIP will match you and the company together.

In the interview I was asked about my work process, how I interact with freelance clients, and what my interests are.