Internships

Journal Entry 1 Journal Entry 2

The Beginning

I work for a company called castells infusion, my company has two locations in New York and Los Angeles. The New York location is located near Grand Central on 42nd St, while the LA office is located near S Figueroa St in downtown LA. We are a relatively small company of 70 employees, it’s a 51% minority-owned company and it’s also private. Our purpose is to develop strategic ideas and theories to get our client’s ideas out into the public with creative designs and ingenious ideas. We lead in all multicultural marketing ideas and advertisements in the industry, and we work with top clients such as Spectrum known as Charter Communications, and McDonald’s. The company was founded around the early 2000s with CEO Liz castells leading the charge, one of the key events in my company’s history was this past year in 2020 when we created virtual shoots to get commercial ads done. My company utilized virtual feeds, chats, and Q dash takes app technology to connect everyone and direct the right direction for the ad. I work as a junior art director under the senior art director of the multicultural movement or Hispanic add making.

How I got Here

My world within the company is junior art director under the senior art director of the multicultural side of the agency. I am in training and learning from the senior art director by participating in various tasks and projects throughout my time there. I was given this opportunity through a mutual connection inside the company. I had one job interview Anne the interview was only with one person, and I didn’t have to wait long between the interview and the job offer once I finished the interview, I only had to wait about two to three days. Some of the questions that I had to answer were explaining who I was, what attracted you to the company, what my strengths and weaknesses are, and how I see myself as a viable asset to this company.

What’s it like

For attire at my company at first, it was more formal, but as time went on it became a lot more relaxed and informal. However, when the big bosses Anne clients come in, we must dress formally like in a suit or button-down with noncausal shoes to show respect. On a normal day at work, I usually dress in jeans with a button-down in casual shoes, but I haven’t had to worry about that since I’ve been working from home due to this pandemic. When we would be at the office, we would be at our workstations which would be cubicles in a big open space area in the office. The typical workday for the employee there would be from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM gather work ideas together with and converse with the team. Create strategies and come up with execution plans for those strategies once we reach the status call at 12. Once 12:00 PM hits we take a status call in which we are directed our task for the day. At 1:00 PM I would take lunch so that I may come back at 2:00 PM to finish my tasks before I go home at 5 PM.

Learning about the business

 

I am learning a lot while working with this company, I’m learning the basics and the overall ins and outs of how the business is and how it is operated. Because my concentration major is communication design it directly parallels with what I do at castells. Creating multiple designs and ideas with the know-it-all of using applications like InDesign, Photoshop, and illustrator has put me on the path to where I need to go. I am learning that in his business you must be truthful to who you are and offer those the utmost trust in you because without it you can be cut in an instant and can’t be trusted in this industry. Meeting deadlines, getting along with coworkers, and providing the best person you can be to my employer and the industry. Whenever my supervisor gives me a task, I complete it the day he tells me to do it no excuses, not to brag about myself but I get work done and quickly. Usually, on normal days I would be in the office working with my coworkers and coming up with ideas. However, due to the pandemic I have been working from home and doing video conferences with my fellow team members.

Working on a project

One example of a collaborative project that I worked on during this internship was a shared mill project that we had to create for the multicultural side. What we had to do was create an InDesign file where we would create a makeshift email to show how it would go out. Basically, what we are creating are the ads that you get in your email about spectrum, for example, you can get spectrum for $49.99 Internet and as designers, I would have to design A concept on how to show the price with the channels, etc. The shared email project consisted of at least four people and each person had a specific job to do mine was collect images Ann build the piece almost from scratch. We all collaborated wonderfully as everyone had great ideas and pitched in equally so we can get the job done, as a team we cannot fail, and we cannot allow failure. In any collaborative team that I work on, I do not accept failure so everything that I do I make sure that it is 100% well thought and well put out before I send anything to the client. The team and I understood that, and we broke down everything we needed to do to succeed.

Self Evaluation of Project

For the project on self-evaluation, I would probably have to give myself an honest eight out of 10. No one is perfect in this world, so I understand where my faults are and during this project, I failed several times of miscommunication but that goes with every project. Yes, humans make mistakes but, in this business, you can’t make mistakes that will cost the entire team, and luckily for me, my mistake was caught before it was sent to the client. My coworkers weren’t mad at me as much because they helped me out in that situation, but they taught me a valuable lesson where I can’t do those types of things in a much more serious situation which we weren’t at the time. Usually, I don’t make these types of mistakes but at this moment I chose the wrong time to make it, but it was corrected right away.

Self Evaluation of Overall job

Overall, during my time at this internship, I would have to give myself a solid 8.5 out of 10 because again you can never be perfect in this world, however, I know how to get the job done. In this journey that I am on in this internship, I have learned so much and got together with mines that taught me things that I never would have thought is true in this business. Every task that’s given to me I make sure I complete it and meet the deadline while also completing any other task that my senior art director needs me to do. In this internship, I taught myself how to think strategically and to play chess not checkers because you need to be aware of everyone else’s moves before you make your own once you make your own you attack with correct precision and accuracy when strategically putting your ideas out there in the forefront. Being at this job gave me the knowledge that I needed to complete my major as well.

Who do I owe it to?

To be honest the one person that I can confide to in this insurance chip has to be the senior director that I work under. Anything that I needed to know about this business he taught me everything, he taught me everything that I needed to know about this business. He taught me that with trust and hard work anything is possible especially when making a lot of money. I never really had a mentor like him other than my mother, but I never grew up without a father so with him being in my life sharing the messages that I am so grateful to receive it meant a lot to me. I feel that in any business no matter what you do you have to have that certain mentor to guide you through your path, in life, you can’t do everything all on your own sometimes you need a little help to get where you want to go.

Gordon Parks

I never heard of Gordon Parks before, I guess what stood out for me was the article on Muhammed Ali. Gordon Parks was given the task in 1966 to follow Ali’s career, both men shared similar stories of racism towards them especially Ali in those days. Each photo he took of Ali captured different moments in time where you felt the picture talk to you without having it actually talk to you. I like how Gordon captured each moment from his days in the ring to his fight against bigotry and racism during that time.

How Gordon Parks and his camera immortalized Muhammad Ali | CANVAS Arts

I chose one of these photos by boarding parks because I am a big fan of Muhammad Ali. I believe that Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest if not the greatest boxers of our time and one of the great activists of our time. This was a man that denied war and wanted peace for the world and his people especially the African American community. This photo right here captures the essence of Ali.

Gordon Parks X Muhammad Ali - The Gordon Parks Foundation — Google Arts & Culture

When I look at this picture of Mohammed Ali’s hands not only do I see a boxer who’s been through it all, but a man who has fought through hell to try to get his freedom. Back in the 60s, it was hard times and heroes like Ali gave communities hope and see what it is to be under the pressure. Every picture that Gordon parks took of Muhammad Ali he wanted to make sure that he caught everything natural of the essence of Ali.