Haijra Heidi Bajraktarevic

Taking initiative can be really hard. Some are too shy to speak up and ask questions regarding problems they see. Some don’t want the added work, so they avoid speaking up. DO NOT DO THIS! I find people who notice things above most designers are the best on the team. They notice problems in the briefs, in solutions and in the companies image. By having such a trait you become vital in the effort to avoid false advertisements and save face for the company. This is especially important when working with a startup because they may not know the huge role design plays in the companies success, you have to be the one to show them.

 

If you’re confused as to how to develop this skill it starts in school. You must give critiques no matter what. Say something, ANYTHING. When someone presents solutions or problems learn to defend properly, argue properly and give options properly. These are the components to taking initiative.

Continue reading Taking Initiative.

A mentor in the career of design is a necessity in my opinion. You should have one at any point in your career, whether you’re a senior designer or a student. A mentor is someone who gives you feedback on your work, so if you’re creating, a mentor would be your best asset to helping you avoid falling in love with your work. A mentor not only helps you see the defects your work but also teaches you lessons that they have discovered that you may not have discovered yet on your individual journey. Everyone can always use more learning.

 

During my internship I have not only gained a mentor but I have gained two. I consider my supervisor and the head of marketing both mentors of mine. Both play huge roles in my internship currently but the benefit of having them throughout my design journey is tremendous. See my supervisor is a entrepreneur who understands business and how to grow one. He is able to teach me how business works and guide me toward opportunities of meeting people who can give me a chance to showcase my work further. He is well versed in business etiquette and knows many individuals in the field. If I was to continue toward working as a freelancer than I would be considered a business all on my own. By understanding what business entails I can receive the knowledge necessary for successes. Continue reading Mentors for Life!

As students we usually get our evaluations from Professors, teachers or mentors but its not really something we do for our selves. I believe it’s because we either think too little of our selves or too much of our selves. Which leads to our own demise. When regarding to the phrase “our selves”, what I mean is our work, work ethics, professionalism and dedication. See some believe as long as you do great work you should be fine, some think you need to just get work in on time to be great and some believe it takes a great personality to make you a great employee. The thing is you need all of that to be truly the best; great work, meet deadlines and be likeable. Those are the guidelines as to how I evaluate myself.

Starting with my work. My work up to this point in the internship has been a PDF of marketing tactics for social media and 7 landing pages for Komeeda’s website. Both projects are used differently and viewed differently but still are evaluated the same.

My work evaluation questions: Continue reading My Grade?

From the beginning of the internship I was always tagged with a woman by the name of Ilana. My supervisor had always tagged us in Slack posts to let us know updates on future work. But who is this woman you may be asking. Well, she’s head of marketing at Komeeda. She is the boss lady of marketing, the head honcho of marketing, she is the reason marketing exists. Okayyyyy, that last statement might be a little much but what I’m trying to say is she is really good at what she does. Marketing and creative teams work along side one another in the industry, they let us know whether a campaign works or not. So obviously we were destined to collaborate on a project at one point in the internship.

The project we started collaborating on was the social media tactics strategy. This project was something I initially started alone but soon discovered Ilana was working on it as well. So I quickly ran through what I was discovering and doing for it, too her. She gave me the go ahead on it. I started with Facebook, Komeeda’s lowest interactive social media platform. The first thing I needed to do was gather research and find out what was going wrong/right on the Facebook page. Continue reading Time to Collaborate!

Landing pages? All I think is a page on a website. So on day 1, when I was told I needed to create a few landing pages I thought sure no problem.

Okay, that wasn’t really how it went down. Actually what really happened was; I went on my first video conference call with four members of the team and they told me how important it was for me to prioritize the landing pages. I have never designed for a landing page but acted like I knew what they were talking about. When really I had written down in my notes; google landing pages.

My supervisor quickly shared his screen and showed me an example of what they meant and then I felt confident that I could do it. Till he said we will need one for each event. My face had one of those uncontrollable responses, you know the kind when you hear something crazy, yup my face said it all.  I didn’t understand why but quickly due to my obvious face one of the team members spoke up and said it’s because we have to target different audience members. At the company we have a large audience and they seek to reach out to each group with specifications. Which as a designer I get.

Continue reading Landing the Landing Pages

Some say “I’m heading to the office now.” when they’re heading to work. I wake up and say “I’m heading to the coffee machine now”. See I work from home which has its pro’s and con’s. One major pro is never having to leave my PJ’s. Ohhhh how I love not having to dress up, fix my hair and face for the office. Nope, I get to sit anywhere in my apartment and enjoy the luxury of never having to worry about those things.

See not only do I get to stay in my PJ’s but I get 24 hour access to air conditioning in this wretched humid NYC summer weather. I can officially avoid the sauna of NYC; our lovely subway stations. The coffee machine also makes me very happy because I don’t think it’s quite normal for a New Yorker to start their day without a cup.  I can imagine myself missing it when needing to run out to catch a train, oh the horror. Well that’s someone else’s problem.

Continue reading I’ll Be Home.

I was in a frantic search for an internship before the class began. The week prior to starting class I found myself going back to an old company which I had worked with in the past; Komeeda.

Komeeda’s founder who I have known for many years has always allowed me to gain experience while working for him. He is also my supervisor for this semesters internship. On May 29,2018 I sent him a private Facebook message asking whether he had any internships available for me during the summer. He quickly replied asking what I could do for the company. My response was a branding idea involving motion graphics for his videos on his social media accounts. I sent him examples of them from YouTube. He then asked to see my portfolio to view my current style. He looked at it and in a moments time said he needed me, that he thought my work was awesome. I was relieved. This meant I had an internship and not just anyone but one I felt confident in. Continue reading Welcome to the Team!

May 29th, 2018:  I joined the team at Komeeda, a startup company here in NYC. The companies agenda is to create events that bring people from all walks of life together around food. These events take place throughout the tri-state area in restaurants and at special locations.

Currently the company has 11 members including myself. We work remotely and occasionally will meet in a conference space that may change over time.

As described on their site:

“Komeeda was built to connect eateries with food-lovers looking for new and exciting food experiences. We created a marketplace for eateries to create customized dining experiences for casual diners/foodies to enjoy. We want people to discover new restaurants, taste new dishes, and interact with their hosts and fellow eaters.

Continue reading The American Dream