Here is the link to the webinar I attended.

https://www.monotype.com/resources/videos/type-trends-2021-and-beyond

The name of the webinar I attended was called Type Trends: 2021 and Beyond, and the webinar is looking in depth at topography trends that have emerged from two typography designers working at Monotype Studio. They are Phil and Charles. The speaker is Melissa Ventrilo and she also works at Monotype Studio. Phil Garnham is a type designer and director-designer with many years of experience in designing and engineering fonts for global brands. Charles Nix is a type director, designer, typographer, and educator. He designed numerous typefaces in the Monotype Library and helped in designing the font Helvetica.

Throughout the webinar, Charles and Phil are showing us different topography trends of 2021 done by different design agencies like Pentagram. The works they showed vary from topography design in magazine covers, food packaging, posters, websites, and ads. Charles and Phil take turns presenting each type of trend by discussing the reason it was trending. For example, Phil showed us 3 posters designed for the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival 2019. He describes the topography design of the posters that can show movements like speeding up or slowing down by playing with the different weights of a font. The 3 Barcelona Jazz Festival posters design was very similar to Paula Scher’s 90s works for the Public Theater. It was a trend coming back to 2021 where type design had the same characteristics as those 3 posters. The trend of those typefaces was Neue Plak Variable, Futura Now Variable, and Helvetica Now Variable. Those typefaces have a lot of font variations like thin, light, regular, bold, etc. Plus adding the technology that we have available today like the different adobe programs, designers can design type that appears to be shape-shifting and show movement even if it is a 2d design.

This webinar was fascinating and informative even though it was about 40 minutes long. Hearing and learning about new topography designs done and published in the real world is inspirational. It gives me a different perspective on topography ideas and inspiration. Also, keep me updated on current popular designs so I do not fall behind on new design trends. Some of the trends they are presenting I have ever heard of were virtual in reality. Today’s technology like smartphones and VR tech makes sense to be moving in that direction.

The people that are working at the Unity For Equality are all volunteers and working in their own free time. When I was attending the Training & Development HR Division Orientation Angie from the HR department told me that no one in the organization is getting paid and everybody is a volunteer. I was in shock because I would think some jobs in the organization will require skills that may be a volunteer can not complete like the coding and design of their new website. The organization has become a global one with branches in countries like Africa and South America. I would think that will require some form of hiring someone to build the office space of the building. After all, they are a non-profit organization which means they could receive many generous donations.

The attire at the organization I believed is informal because they are a non-profit organization and everybody is working in their own free time. Everybody is working remotely and they are all working in different states. Angie from the HR department was in California when we had the zoom training orientation and she had her camera on. She was not dressed up in business attire and more in casual clothing like a sweater. I think she was eating or snacking on some kind of food during the orientation. She was a little nervous but her presentation was formal and she explained all the rules and the member’s hierarchy scale from cofounder to intern like me. Again everybody in the organization is a volunteer and they work when they can so there ready isn’t a typical work hour for the organization.

The organization uses an app called Rock to communicate with all its members and teams. Rock is a messaging plus task app that allows people to work together with messages, notes, tasks, file storage, and group meeting. The teams or members communicate with me through the app regarding tasks and upcoming meetings. The app also has a website which is very convenient when working on projects on your computer while communicating with a team member. The organization has created groups in the app for each department like the Communications & Marketing Department and Strategic Engagement Department, etc to keep communication organized. For my job in the organization as a social media content creator, I use adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and sometimes Photoshop.

Gordon Park’s photography was taken around 1940 to 1950 when at the time racism was happening in America. The Africans-Americans community was suffering from poverty, racism, and inequality. Gordon Park was capturing the visual representation of the horrid time that the African Americans community and its people were going through that time.

Gordon Parks Untitled, Harlem, New York 1948 photograph showed the street of Harlem as a poor neighborhood with dirty metal trash cans overflowing with trash. The trash is on the sidewalk and the street does appear to look dirty. The Harlem community in this image looks like people have given up hope and barely making enough money to survive the next day. Given the time they were living in this could be the best they could have done from all of the discrimination and inequality African Americans were facing. A lot of businesses and communities had banned black people from their area and will have signs like “White Only” posted on a fence and windows. African Americans were significantly getting paid less than whites and usually worked low-income jobs due to racial inequality.

In class, we talk about ethics in today’s workforce and the many factors that contribute to ethics. Ethics can be different from one company to the other because not all companies have the same code of conduct and religious beliefs. At the time Gordon Park’s work showed probably the worst side of ethics where people were judge base on their skin color and had to follow a set of rules that put them at a disadvantage. His photography of the African Americans community in America showed the direct result of poor ethical choices that was made against the Black community. 

Here is the link to the article. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-massive-linkedin-study-reveals-who-actually-helps-you-get-that-job/

In the article “A Massive LinkedIn Study Reveals Who Actually Helps You Get That Job” Scientific American did a study through the Linkedin database that shows people found jobs more through something known as weak ties than strong ties. Weak ties are people that you barely know from a friend of a friend. Strong ties are people that you are close with like family, friends, or your everyday coworkers that you have a strong connection to. This kinda blown my mind because I used to think people got more frequently jobs from people that they are closer with like family and friends. Those are people that you trust and know will have your back. You can somewhat count on them to put in a good word for you to get your foot in the door. This is not the case according to the research that has been done. 

Weak ties like mutual friends can open new opportunities for you because they could mention you to a different group of people outside your friend zone. They could get you the attention of a new job hunter that may have heard from you. Since he or she is not your close friend their opinion of you will not be biased when mentioning you to a potential new employer. Thus it makes people “more productive, has good ideas and get better jobs, promotions, and wages.” I have not heard of this term until this class from the professor and this article. I’m glad I am aware of this now when I’m at the stage of job searching and hunting. 

Strong ties are just as important as weak ties but they are more important after you found a job. Strong ties provide social support as they are the people you are going to form some kind of an emotional connection with. They could be your coworkers that you have been working together with for a long time. Together you guys have struggled through work stress and other complications at work. They can help you become successful at work by helping when you are in trouble at work and offering good advice when making a hard decision. 

The off-campus networking event I attended was an event from the Adobe Max website. It was a live virtual session on October 19, Wednesday at 8:30 pm EST and around 5:00 pm PST in person in their adobe max conference building in Los Angeles, California. The event was called MAX sneaks by the Adobe Research team. The host and the speakers were Bria Alexander and Kevin Hart himself. Bria Alexander is a Senior Design Program Manager & Adobe Sneaks Co-Host, Adobe. Kevin Hart of course you all already know is an actor, comedian, and entrepreneur. It was on a huge stage with a large crowd of adobe users and about 4000 viewers in 59 countries live and I was one of them.

The event was called MAX Sneaks and it was a demonstration by Adobe engineers that give us the first look at potential future technologies, that may or may not make it into upcoming versions of Adobe products like illustrator or photoshop. The event was about 2 hours and each Adobe engineer will come on the stage and talk and show a demo of the future tech in different adobe programs. Bria Alexander will introduce the Adobe engineers as they came on stage and the name of each project. During the Adobe engineers are demoing their new programs tools, Kevin Hart and Bria will sometimes respectfully interpret and discuss the usefulness of the new program tools. Bria will always ask Kevin Hart if the new programs would be something he could see his team using in the future.

The first presenting Adobe engineer was Zhifei Zheng showing his new tech in photoshop called Clever Composites. Then Joon-Young Lee showed his new tech in the premiere called Instant Add. Arushi Jain showing her new tech in illustrator called Project Magnetic Type. Ankit Phogat with new tech in illustrator called Project Vector Edge. Jae shin Yoon on his new tech in a video called Project Motion Mix. The list goes on but there were two that interest me the most probably because I could see myself using them in the future.

Project Magnetic Type by Arushi Jain was incredibly awesome in illustrator. It allowed illustrator users to add any shapes to a text without turning the text into an outline. If you move and resize the text the shape will move and resize with the text without the user even grouping the shape and the text together. Furthermore, if the shape or the object has a design element on it and the user places the object on the text in illustrator. Whatever design element was on the object will automatically apply to the texts. When I was watching the demo live, I was amazed.

The second new tech that interests me was Project Vector Edge by Ankit Phogat. His project allowed any art clip that the user has designed to be put directly on a product label or a mock-up in the right perspective and dimension in illustrator. When placed on the art clip on the product label you can move it around to any side of the product and it will stay in the right perspective. Before you would do it in photoshop and use the transform tool like stew, distort, and perspective which would take a while and still not look right. The new tech program does it all for you using ai programming developed by Adobe engineers.

My role within the non-profit organization is being part of the Strategic Engagement Department which is responsible for content creation for the Unity for Equality social media pages. Content creation like creating Instagram stories for public holidays the organization wants to acknowledge. Or the organization needs a social media post about an upcoming event on their Facebook or Instagram account. My supervisor for the Strategic Engagement Department is Jennifer Vazquez.

I came across this internship from a friend that took their internship with this organization over the summer. My friend enjoyed her internship with Unity for Equality over the summer and recommended the organization to me. She provided me with the name of the founder and his email address. I contact him through email and message him that I am a student at CUNY City Tech and I was looking for an internship. Within the email, I provided my name, contact, my school information, and my resume.

A few days later I got a message from Neil Trivedi saying he wants to set up a time for a phone interview. During the phone interview, he explained who he was and talk about the organization’s history, mission, staff, and about their internship. He talks about the expectations and my role as an intern at the organization. He asked where I was living, what I was studying, what college I am attending, who my instructor for this internship class was, and how did I find the organization. The whole interview took about 40 minutes.

There were five tasks I needed to complete in order to get the internship. A cover letter, a professional picture, a basic information sheet, any school paperwork he needs to fill out, and a bio with a minimum of 2 paragraphs on how I want my work to impact the community and world.

This is their official Instagram social media page and the second picture is their current posts. My job is to create social media posts for the organization’s upcoming events and holidays. The second image with the black circle was a post I designed and created for the organization. I will talk about it more in my other blog post about self-evaluation.

The internship that I work on this semester is called Unity for Equality and they are based in New York City. They are a non-profit organization founded in 2016 by Neil Trivedi. Their main mission is to help the unfortunate that are below the poverty line, the elderly, students, minorities, and immigrants that are struggling with “financial problems, age, health, lack of employment, or lack of education.” The non-profit organization will provide services to help people so they can have a better chance at a good quality of life.

The non-profit organization Unity for Equality was founded in 2016 by Neil Trivedi. He started meeting with community activists and officially formed Unity for Equality to get communities the tools and resources needed to thrive and succeed. One of the key events in its history was during the pandemic of Covid 19 where the organization 2020 helped distribute over 4,000 masks to healthcare workers. In 2021, they help and assist communities and people that were substantially affected by the pandemic negatively. In Astoria, Queens they were able to give out approximately 1,000 face masks and hand sanitizers morning to afternoon to the community that was living in the area.

This is the link to their official homepage website.

I work within the non-profit organization in the Strategic Engagement Department which is responsible for content creation for social media. My department director is Jennifer Vazquez.

On their website, there is an article called Unity for Equality South East Africa Expansion. The article explains the organization has been helping New York for four years with local issues. They realized those same problems do not just occur in New York, but they also occur in other parts of the world. So they created a branch and now they have established a new office in Southeast Africa. They will help explore and address the serious concerns of the region. Concerns involve environmental issues, child labor, poverty, sanitation, education illegal poaching, deforestation, waste management, smuggling, and crime.

From TUC magazine, the article called “TUC Features: Neil Trivedi is Impacting Lives Through His ‘Unity For Equality’ Non-Profit Organization” is a Q&A interview with Neil Trivedi on how his non-profit organization had impacted the communities they have helped and talks about all the different projects they organization have done. Also, the struggles and the hardship that the organization has faced such as finding the right team members. During the Covid 19 pandemic, they made a huge impact on saving lives in their community by providing resources to healthcare workers and people of their community. The non-profit organization has grown into a global organization that has chapters that are spread throughout the corner of the world. Countries such as India, Morocco, Liberia, Egypt, and Bangladesh.

Here is the link to the article.

TUC Features: Neil Trivedi is Impacting Lives Through His ‘Unity For Equality’ Non Profit Organization

The first networking event I attended was Meet The Pros with the host being Alitha Martinez a DC comic artist. The networking event was a networking get-together on the City Tech Campus. The interviewer was a professor at City Tech. He would ask Alitha Marinez different questions about her career and how she started. She would respond with detailed answers to the questions and it was like a Q&A event. During the event, many topics were covered such as how she started as a comic artist, where she was from, her salary, how she met her mentors, and the people or the company that she has worked for. 

Alitha Martinez is from Flordia where she grew up. There aren’t a lot of creative or design schools where Mrs. Martinez grew up in Flordia. Her parents did not understand her purse of being an artist or just in the creative field. Her parents did not believe she could make a living and a career being a comic artist. Even her teachers did not believe in her and said that a comic artist isn’t for women but more for men. She moved to New York City to start her journey as a comic artist. When to SVA but dropped out because she was not learning anything that could help her be a comic artist. The roommate at SVA did not believe in her nor did they want to see her see their work. So she drop out of SVA and started learning on her own and sending out her portfolio. She met one of the greatest comic artists during Comic-Con when she met him and showed her work to him. There she got a job at one of the biggest comic studios.   

The event was very interactive between Mrs. Martinez and the attendees which were the majority of students and some instructors. There were about 30 students that filled up the entire classroom and it was a packed event. 

One of the questions from a professor was how was she getting paid. Was she getting paid by commission or salary? Her answer was that she wish she was getting paid by salary but that was not the case. She was getting paid by commission for each comic book she completed. She always looking for new opportunities and challenges. 

One of the other questions I believed was how many hours she spend working per work or per day. I think her answer was something along the line of a lot of hours and nights. She always working and she supposes to be working that night as well on a DC comic book.  

What I learned from the host was that it takes time to develop one’s skills professional and it does not happen overnight. It is okay to not know how things are done or work. She mentions when she was starting out she was not that great but she was consistent with her work and she kept on working work. Over time she learned from her mistakes and has improved her skills.