Overall I think my experience in my internship really taught me a lot. I learned the ins and outs of the business side of things. The owner goes thru a lot of meetings in a day and has to keep track of how projects are going at the same time. The designer has to always adapt to what the client wants. Sometimes you make something and the client wants it different or sometimes the client loves the idea.

I really want to explore other areas of work as well. This internship taught me a different side of design. I learned a lot on how to create interactive design like walls with bookshelves on them is one example. Now my focus is on getting a design job this summer!!

I had the pleasure to attend an awesome event that happens a couple of times a year. It is called the MAKEWAVES event. The event I attended was held in the GA workspace. It is basically an event for creatives in different areas. For example the last make waves concentrated on Screenprinting and Photography. They’re was a special guest, the owner of kidsuper spoke about his brand and what he does. A couple of other photographers were there speaking about film and their preferences when they shoot. This event was really cool because you got to ask questions then and there about whatever you were interested in. After they had the guest speakers there was a screenprinting workshop, which was cool. They also held a workout session after everything was over in the space. They brought in a personal trainer and he did a workout for an hour. After the workout people were able to drink some free titan tea which were sponsors of the event. I would def recommend people to attend this event. There are good connects and it is a fun experience.

A really cool app that is gaining popularity very quickly is pinterest. I love using this app to create mood boards for inspiration. It is basically an app and website where people can find photos of basically anything. All you have to write are a couple of keywords of what you are looking for and the app gives you all the photos with that hashtag.

A lot of the photos are really dope shots of what ever category you are looking up. This app is like the new tumblr.

You can save as much moldboards as you want which is awesome.

I have been using an app for quite some years now to edit photos. Vsco has really cool filters I like to use. I recently went on a trip to Denver, CO and used the VSCO app to mainly edit my photos. Here are some examples.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with g3 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

I was able to really bring out the blue tones with this app. It also has certain settings that isolate certain parts of a photo to allow you to play around with.

Here is an example of what kind of settings you can use.

You can also share your photos for other people around the world to see. You can also see theirs and see how they used certain filters to make their photo more special.

I recommend this app to novice and expert level photographers. Even if you just take photos for fun this app can really help you get that perfect photo.

During my time in the internship I was primarily working alongside one of the graphic designers with one of their clients which were MetLife. The project consisted of designing huge scale walls inside their Warwick, RI location. The walls reached up to 40 feet wide. The interesting part about this that I didn’t just design graphics for a wall, it was a lot of interactive walls. Working in a corporate job can get boring, so we designed walls that entertained these workers while on their break or some downtime at work. I helped brainstorm ideas like an interactive wall you can draw on. We were also thinking about making an exchangeable wall library. Basically the wall would have book shelves you can replace books with. If someone wanted to share a book with someone they can put it up on the wall leave a little review and find another book on the wall to read. My desk was right next to the designers desk at my internship, so it was really easy to communicate with him. They really liked the concept and wanted me to further explore it by creating mock ups of the walls. I didn’t really get time to mock up the walls. The hard part about this was thinking of low tech ways to do this because the budget was limiting.  

I recently been so busy with internship, personal life, school and maintaining a side job. I will admit I am not the best at scheduling my life, but I try the most. The 1st week of May I missed a day that I was supposed to go. I realized in the real world I could of been fired. The office manager emailed me and explained to me I should call in advance if I can’t make it.

Besides me not showing up, I think my performance has been an 8 out of 10. There were some ideas I had they really liked and showed to clients. Some ideas I had were not so good and they helped me polish them.

I recently have been working on a project they are working on for METLIFE insurance. We are designing what should go on the walls in there rhode island office space and in midtown NYC. The wall I was working on is the one in midtown. They wanted to use slogans METLIFE had throughout its history and design them in a way that is not boring and appealing. The wall was located in a big hall that is used for the workers to go from one side of the building to the other. My boss said a lot of people walk in this space so the design has to be really interesting and different. So first off they told me to go on pinterest and find different images of interesting wall installations. I learned that its not only an image you have to think about but the material we can use. My boss told me to look at laser cut letters, installations, motion sensor lights and anything else that can look “cool”. I automatically assumed it was just going to be a cut out vinyl of my design, but there was so much more to it than that. I would say I was successful in finding dope inspiration ideas, but it was hard for me to visually display it in a way that the client can understand. Also I had to think about the wall being 40 feet wide and 8 feet tall. So I had to be conscious of how I design. It was all difficult to understand to create a “scale” drawing for the wall since you can’t technically create a 40 foot artboard on illustrator.

It has been about a month and some days that I have been interning at Purepartner. I am learning a lot about the real world when it comes to graphic design. There is a lot of talking and meetings before initial design. So this is the routine I noticed when we work with clients. Ron (owner of Purepartner) will come to us and tell us what the client needs. He tells us the direction he visions and the budget we have to work with. We than come up with a pdf presentation of our ideas in a way where the client can understand it easily. Sometimes they have Skype meetings while Ron goes over the pdf with them or sometimes the client looks on it on their own. So the head designer tells me it is always important to put all the supporting ideas to your concept in a clear and concise way when you present. I also learned with a bunch of meetings you have to be conscious of budget. You might have a brilliant idea for something but if it realistically won’t fit budget, chances are they will scrap your idea. My typical day in the office so far is getting up to date by the head designer. He shows me what clients he is working on and will ask me to do research on concepts he is doing. Sometimes they ask me to fix images before they present to a client. I could say that its challenging at times because I am not a professional in photoshop or illustrator. But they designers in the company are really helpful and nice so it helps. Overall this is a big learning experience.

The dress attire in the company is really casual. There is no certain dress code for work. I usually come in with a button down shirt and some khaki pants and sneakers. I don’t wear anything too flashy or colorful. The office consists of two rooms, a waiting space and conference room. Theres 2-3 people in each room and everyone works on desks. Typical day in the office consists of brain storming ideas and fixing mock ups for clients. They also have conference calls with their clients everyday discussing updates on projects. I haven’t seen a very busy day, which is cool.