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    The person I consider my mentor is my supervisor. He has taught me everything that I know about copy and print. We have learned from each other and I thank him for that. We have been working with each other for over two years and we have grown as individuals. I have learned so much graphic design from him and vice versa. I believe that mentors are such an important piece of growing. Working with my supervisor forces me to go back and relearn the basics. I learned that you actually learn new insights by doing this, or you realize you may have been taking the wrong approach for years. You build a relationship that strengthens your communication skills.

      I think it’s also important to have a support system. My supervisor has always been someone who gives feedback and gives credit where credit is due. He encourages the team to always do the best and never be scared to fail, as long as we learn from our mistakes and move on from them. One thing I appreciate about my supervisor is his commitment to his craft and doing so inspires me to take my craft seriously. His honesty and willingness to teach us new things have helped me on building relationships not only with him but others. An example would be when I started this internship class. I was scared that he wouldn’t allow me to use the print and marketing department for my internship. When I sat him down and explained my situation to him I was beyond grateful that he agreed to let me use the department as my internship.

My internship has challenged me as a designer to sharpen my skills and start learning new ones. It has been a really fun and challenging experience. This is an experience I will remember forever.

I am pretty proud of myself and the way I have carried myself throughout my internship. The feeling of failing is always around the corner. However, the universe gives you opportunities in life, because you are ready for them. Looking back on my journey I have finally concluded that I have known for a long time. The conclusion is that I am prepared to move on to something bigger. As graduation approaches and the semester comes to its final four weeks, I’ve just been reflecting on my time at the department and thinking about the next chapter of my life. I have grown so much in this company in such a short amount of time. I have learned so much about design and the marketing world. I have learned so much about the importance of marketing and the importance of a designer’s role in the success of a business. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from working in the print and marketing department has been to understand the brand and the target audience and remember that you are designing for them and not for you.

Internship Presentation

Below is my final internship presentation.  This has been a really fun and memorable time in my life. I have learned so much and really put myself out there. Working for this company has really sharpen my skills and has really transformed me into a better designer. I am forever grateful for this experience and will take everything I have learned into the world. Thank you! Enjoy.

Christmas is one of the most annoying holidays In all of history. However, working in the print and marketing department is a chaotic experience. As we prepare for the upcoming holidays, each store is, tasked with two design challenges.
The first challenge as a team is designing a toy donation poster. We do this together, and we all give out ideas in sketches. The majority of the team doesn’t do graphic design, but some of us do. We start by sketching different ideas and then hold a group meeting. In which we all trade ideas. We start combining ideas and mixing what we do and do not like. After all, is said and done, we pick the best idea. Then we start designing. I personally love this challenge because everyone is working on it together. Even though I find the holidays stressful and annoying, I believe that the poster makes us feel like a family.

The second challenge is individual. In this challenge, we create the store’s Christmas cards. Everyone on the team designs their version of the store’s Christmas card. Two weeks before Christmas, the managers vote on which one they like the best. Usually, this challenge is the best. I start designing a little earlier since I have access to adobe software at school and at home. I do not have to share the computers at work. This year the inspiration for my design is new beginnings and celebration.  Last year, my manager and I worked on a Christmas card together and submitted it as a team. We got praise for it, which was nice to hear.

Every day is a new day. Every day you learn something new. My internship has been nothing but a wild ride. I have learned so much about the printing world. It has changed the way I do graphic design now. For instance, for every project I do now, I always print it out to see if the type is too big or too small, the biggest and most important lesson this internship has taught me is communication. As designers, we work with a lot of face-to-face and phone communication with clients or other departments. It’s important, to sharpen your salesmanship, pitches and public speaking, phone skills, networking, client relationship building, active listening, body language, etc.

Lastly, learning new skills and learning new things are amazing ways to get noticed more. For instance, my internship is teaching me how to animate videos for digital marketing ads. At first, I was nervous and scared because I have never animated anything. My supervisor decided to teach me something new so I, can get this particular job done. We were creating a short animated video for a laundry mat. What we decided to do was to make the logo spin in circles to show clothes being washed. It was an overall great experience, and it’s something I will be applying to my portfolio projects.

 

Working anywhere, you are going to learn a lot of things. The biggest lesson I have learned through working at my internship has been empathy. I have noticed that most people have the “Until it Happens to You” syndrome, meaning societal problems don’t exist in their minds since it does not affect them personally. There has been a recent discussion on empathy being one of the foundations of ethics. Practicing empathy will usually ground your discussion and resolve many conflicts.

The tips I learned throughout my time here are, to not just listen to people but to understand them. Show empathy by echoing the answers you are about to give them. Tell real stories so you can build a relationship with customers. Remember names and faces. People love when you remember them. I did business cards for this small business 2 years ago, and when they came back a year later, the way their faces lit up when I told them I remember their situation last time was amazing. Lastly, be true to yourself and true to others. Be honest and transparent about anything you do and say.

Software produce audio and translation formats.

My internship is always teaching me new things. One of the many things I learned throughout my internship was how to put your logo onto different types of marketing materials. This is what we call ” placing a lead order.” Essentially, customers would come to a print shop and we would guide them. For example, last week a customer came in and ask us what kind of marketing materials we offer. He wanted to put his logo onto pens. This was my first time doing this. The way it works is pretty easy actually. The first thing you do is vectorize the logo. You would use illustrator for this. The second thing you do Is adjust the logo to the printing area. After that, you export the logo and download the template. For pens the template is 4×0.6.

When that is done, the next step is to use a printing pad. Since a pen can not go through the printer like a regular 8.5 by 11 we use what’s called a printing pad. After adjusting the logo onto the printing template, you can go right ahead and print. It only takes about one to two minutes. This is a really good skill to put onto your resume.

As a graphic designer, working in a print shop the first thing I learned, is the importance of setting up bleeds. You may be asking, what’s the importance of bleeds? So let’s do the basics first. A bleed refers to an ink bleed. If you print to the edge of the paper it doesn’t stop like a laser. You have to allow for the ink to seep just a little onto the paper and ” bleed”. So you basically print beyond the paper.

A real-life example would be When I was printing out an 11.5″x8.5″ booklet. The paper that it will be printed on will be much larger so it will need to be cut down. If you want a correct booklet you need to design the brochure slightly larger than its final size. I would say about 1/8′ larger on each side. That little extra room is the bleed. It is not meant to be seen but it allows for the printing/cutting alignment to be slightly off without ending up with white edges around the brochure. The trim is where the cutting is intended to happen. Basically, we want to avoid white borders around our file.

Working in the print and marketing department, we do not have a dress code. Wait, yes, we do. We do not have a uniform. However, we have to wear all black, This is because our name tags are red, so the color bright red looks so good. I wear a black sweater in the cold and a black t-shirt in the summer. We work in an open space. We are all surrounded by big printers. The department is, split into two sections. One section is the full-service section, in which we are behind the counter. The other section of the department is the self-serve area. This is where the printers are for customers who want to make copies and print stuff out.

The typical Employee hours are usually 6 to 7 hours. The majority of the time we have to work overtime because it gets really busy. Sometimes I can start the week with 30 hours, and by the end of the week I end up with 40 hours. The whole team is pretty amazing. When its lunchtime, the opener goes on lunch break first. Then the person who comes in for the mid, then the second mid. And finally, the person who closes the department is the last to go on break.

 

 

When I did my interview for staples, I wasn’t nervous at all. I had a lot of career courses in high school that prepared me for this interview. It was also a retail job, so I wasn’t scared. I was interviewed, by Jose he is the sales manager for the whole store. He just asked me basic questions. When he saw that I had graphic design experience on my resume his eyes lit up. He told me, there was an opportunity at copy and print and if I could impress him in the next six months I can get promoted. Which I did. My supervisor has been a great help and I love my team.

I do a lot of marketing material for small businesses and a lot of design edits. Printing is not for the weak.

I enjoy in-person interviews more than I do zoom interviews. I feel that zoom interviews don’t alow you to show off your true personality. I shine bright when i am in person and can show movement and just feel more human.

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  For this semester, I will be working with the print and marketing department at staples. I have been working for them for the past two years, it has been a pretty good experience. The store is on metropolitan ave. There are six of us working in the department from Monday to Sunday. The primary goal of the print and marketing department is to provide small business print solutions for their business. We get customers from all walks of life. We get doctors who own their practice, and lawyers who need promotional flyers to promote their new law firm.

• The article I found, ” Shutterstock And US Retail Join Forces To Power A New Interactive Design Experience For Small Business Owners”, speaks on something that goes with my design experience. In a new deal, the P&M department will help customers create beautiful, compelling marketing materials with access to high-quality Shutterstock images. This is great because a lot of small businesses do not know about stuff like this. Especially, minority small businesses. In another article, ”  Business Empowerment Platform wiseHer Team Up to Launch the Big Small Business Boost Contest.” Giving back to the community by boosting small businesses is an amazing opportunity that you don’t see big cooperations do often. Small businesses from all across America will have the chance to enter and will be selected to win $5,000. The gift cards will allow them to purchase marketing material, signage material, ship products, or stock up on supplies