Category: COMD 4900 Internship

Working for this company, I learned a lot more what it is like to try and accommodate a company’s clients. They care so much about their members and how to make sure things run smoothly for them. Their goal of people being together around the world doing fitness, is similar to how the employees all work together. Everyone helps each other, even from the different teams, it just shows how important it is to work as a team to help run a company. This company has faced many challenges in the past, even had a new CEO after a couple of years, and they do their best to fix any mistakes. The redesigning of the shirts, and pitching ideas about the swag bag I worked on really made me feel like they truly care for their members. It’s free stuff, for A LOT of people who are committed and love this company. I definitely would love to one day work in the creative department here!

A woman that was on the team I worked with was a role model to me. She was always so open-minded yet truthful about her critique. She encouraged me a lot with my work and when I asked what she liked to do, she said she loved drawing and painting and that is what got her into the design world. It was such a coincidence because that is literally what got me into wanting to study communication design. She seemed so happy and energized all the time, and it wasn’t only because of her morning coffees! She greeted everyone with a smile and a good morning every morning, would laugh and joke when appropriate and was just always fun to talk to. It is people like her that make a workplace so wonderful. But looking around at the whole team, everyone was just so nice and kind, even when it came to sharing their opinion on something. It felt like a dream team.

One thing I felt I did pretty good with was the 1K shirt because when I first presented the idea, I had the logo in between the 1 and the 0s, and it looked like it said “I Poo club” because of the placement. And others started to say they felt that there was something about it that looked wrong, but couldn’t quite put the thought together til I said it. So I switched the placement of the logo and they told me it was much better.

I’m unsure if this is technically a collaboration, but I did help the concierge team with taking photos of some members with instructors after class. It was just one person I worked with, and I’ve taken photography, so my knowledge on how to set the f-stop and other settings on the canon T7 rebel camera came in handy for helping them understand how to take photos that would look really nice in different lighting. It was successful in the way that they kinda understood better how to take better photos. It was unsuccessful as the team decided the canon camera was too difficult for anyone on the team that had no knowledge about professional cameras. So they ended up switching to iPhone 14 phones the company bought specifically for the team to take photos of the members.

Entry 1 6/11/2023
Interning at Peloton is so fun and really cool to see how they do things behind the scenes for their members. So far my supervisor had me sit in with the concierge team to observe how they come up with ideas for certain types of members. They discussed about what is working and what they want to change as in the free gifts we give out. Certain members that have reached a milestone (ex. have taken 100 classes) get a t-shirt. My supervisor wants me to think about how to redesign the “Century Club” t-shirt so we can give something new as this design has been the same for the past 6 years. They also were talking about designing a t-shirt for those who reach 1,000 classes (millennial or mil) however, I brought up how some people might mistake those words for age or for million. They took my thought into consideration, but also still want to find a way to incorporate “1,000” onto the t-shirt without it looking tacky, and have a nice ring to it as “Century Club” does.  I sadly fractured my toe on Tuesday, but they were very accommodating as they let me sit in for other meetings through zoom on Wednesday and Thursday, and had me taking lessons about the company, their values, and their members through an app called “Peloton Academy”. It gave me a lot of information about the company and how important the members’ experience are and why we try to encourage their achievements. These lessons ended with questions that I needed to get at least an 80% on in order to “pass” and move on to the next. I was also asked to customize a water bottle that is going to be given to a member as a gift for their 2000th class taken. 

Entry 2 6/18/2023
I’ve made a few sketches that I felt would be of help to their 1000th class shirt gift. They seemed to like it and gave me a few ideas of what they wanna see on the shirt, so I can update more sketches. I also listed somethings they might want to include in their swag bag also emphasizing how important it is for them to put the company logo on everything in the bag, including one of the smallest things which is a pen. I’ll be whipping up some sketches about how I think the logo could be placed on different items included in the swag bag. They informed me they have pens that have the logo on it, but still wanted to see my sketches and mock-ups if there’s a new kind of way they can do it. I’ve done about 80 hours so far. Though it never really feels like it’s 8 hours every time I show up. I love being in that environment, I feel like I’m around my type of people with all the design and creative talk. I love how everyone is so kind and gives genuine critique because sometimes I struggle to decide things, but when people give me critique, I get a better idea of what I wanna say and do.

Entry 3 6/25/2023
So far I’ve done 104 hours. They asked me to customize 3 more water bottles, the first VIP member I customized the bottle for, loved it! He had asked for a messy rainbow with clouds around.

I’ve also started to finalize my sketches, soon going to put them in mock-ups for the swag bag, the 1,000 class shirt, and the century club t-shirt. So far what I’ve shown them they’ve critiqued and given me their thoughts on how to change it or make it look more like the company style. I love this internship. They let me take pictures of members with the instructor after some classes and it is so fun and sweet to see how happy people are after working out with their favorite instructors.

Entry 4 7/1/2023
I’ve done 128 hours. I made all the mock-ups for the swag bag, they all loved it. Some items already existed (like the sweat towel, notebook, and pen) I didn’t make the pen or notebook mock-up because that’s actually something they give to employees when they get hired, so they wanted to keep it exclusive as gift for employees. The 1K club shirt idea might be scratched because of their focus on making sure the company doesn’t waste much financially. They loved my new century shirt idea and have asked me to send them so they can pass it on to the creative team and see what they think. I did tell them I’m not too much of a fan of the drawings I did on the sleeves as from far they could look like characters of a different language. The drawings are icons they had on their site representing cycle, treadmill, yoga, and rowing classes.

The 3 new water bottles I customized went to their homes with happy clients. My supervisor talked about how it would be cool for us to do a bottle customizing event at the studio if they would approve of it. I wrote down specifically what these members wanted and then drew it out using acrylic paint markers. The first one was Winnie The Pooh. Second one a woman had asked me for dots in pink, blue, and purple, in any type of pattern. And the third this guy wanted his to look like it’s dripping some random green slime, I thought writing his membership username in red would make it look cool. He loved it, said he likes how it gives a horror-like look to it.

It’s been a great time doing this, I absolutely loved being around a team of people who know how to talk design and critique. This company has been forever one of my favorite places to work and it was an honor to join them on an internship.

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The attire at the company is casual wear, or sports attire. For the teams that work directly in the studio with members, they wear full black casual or sports attire. I wore jeans, or leggings with a tank top or t-shirt. There wasn’t a strict dress-code, just to dress appropriate for a fitness company. The areas are open work areas, no desks, unless it’s at the headquarters, but even there everyone can sit anywhere and work. The studio has 24/7 security, so for people who work the early morning shift at 5am come in early, they are let in by security. My hours were around 8/9 am to start and 4/5pm to end during the week. On Saturdays, it was 6am to 2pm. Lunch break is whenever I wanted to, for 30 minutes, except if there was a meeting or an hour before I clock-out.

My role within the company is to help this team redesign a shirt and come up with ideas on how their swag bag gift can be for VIP members or members who attain an achievement. I came to select this internship because I’ve worked for this company for over five years, they’ve been amazing people to work around. They have seen my whole journey with obtaining my bachelor’s degree in communication design and have even contributed to helping me pay for some classes. The process I received this internship was easy because I knew so many people there, I just asked around if they knew any open internships, and because I work for the company, I get internal access to positions they may be open for people only within the company. I was told by a co-worker that my supervisor spoke about how they needed a designer for certain items. When I found out the supervisor I’ve known already needed one, I asked him. The interview process was pretty nonchalant because I knew him, and he knew of my skills, and studies from the beginning of my career there. Some questions he asked were about the new skills I’ve learned and developed during my years at City Tech. I also showed him my art page because he knew I could draw as I’ve worked before with this company during a custom shoe event where I drew on members’ cycling shoes. I knew that I got the position a couple hours later that day when he called to confirm. I was so excited to finally see how the real world can be with designing for a big company.

The company I started working for this semester is pretty big and it’s located in Manhattan on 34th street. It is a public company. Their goal is to bring people together to exercise and create an easy way for anyone around the world to work-out with instructors on live broadcasts. People are also able to go to the live studios located in New York and London and work out with their favorite instructors, with different themes of music in classes like cycling, treadmill, yoga, or strength. The company’s customers are referred to as members because they can subscribe to memberships and create an account to take their live classes, or on-demand classes. The company was founded in 2012 by a couple of guys who were friends and just thought of the idea one day while hanging out in their basement. The area I’ll be working in is with the Studio Operations team. They work directly with members and the studio to make sure everything with members and studio classes go well. I’ve worked with this company prior, and have always thought about wanting to work in their creative department, so this is a huge opportunity for me!

In the past I have use the creative works of a friend who I asked permission for first. He is a producer and creates music, and normally I put music on my process videos when uploading my work so the video isn’t just silence. Usually I try to match the music with the type of art I’ve created (slow music for things about love or fast music for some crazy art piece). Upon getting his approval, I would tag his profile and say “music credits”. People can easily click his profile and go check out his music just from looking at my own work.

When I read over the case, at first I felt like maybe he didn’t deserve to be sued for not knowing the photo he used was infringed use of copyright, but then when he admitted to knowing and tried to cover it up out of realizing his mistake, then I understood better why they wanted to sue him. Regardless of knowing the use of something. is ok or not, it is still important to do your research and figure it out, and if there’s no way of figuring it out, then it just shouldn’t be used. Had he done his research, maybe he could’ve avoided all that trouble. He could’ve even gotten permission from the original photographer to use it, and they could’ve both profited from his design because that was a poster seen almost everywhere.

“Use of Photography” AIGA. (2001). PDF. New York City; Richard Grefé, AIGA. 

“Guide to Copyright” AIGA. (2001). PDF. New York City; Richard Grefé, AIGA.

Elliott, Carl. “Summary | Ethics of Design.” Ethics of Design, https://ethicsofdesign.wordpress.com/summary/. Accessed 10 June 2023.

For my internship, the work I will be doing will have the company’s logos on everything. Right now we are talking about redesigning a shirt they currently have already that has been used for the past 6/7 years. This shirt is given to members who accomplish taking 100 classes. It’s called the “Century Club” t-shirt. While this shirt will serve as a motivation for a member to keep going, it also represents the company and how they value their members. The logo and font are always the same with the exception of when there is a holiday or celebration of something (like this month Pride colors are incorporated into their normal logo). I also spoke with them about the confusion there could be if they put the word “mil or millennial” on a shirt for people who take 1,000 classes because they might mistake it for age or million. I understood how we have to have respect for other designers after reading through the AIGA guide, and I felt like I put my input in without really stepping on someone else’s ideas. I’ve also heard about how the company had to fight copyright cases not because of their designs, but because the use of music by A-list artists. I was already familiar about copyrights, however, I didn’t realize how important it is to register all designs, regardless of copyright protection. If someone were to use my design and I don’t have it registered, there’s no way to sue if it’s not registered.

I was not asked to sign any confidentiality form, however, they do discuss with us how important it is not to disclose any information about what is to come because the public is always watching and trying to find out what is the next thing the company is creating. They let us know how important it is because if something gets leaked out and it isn’t a final product, people will have more questions or can start rumors. But I find it to be a little too trusting that they wouldn’t make me sign anything because in the AIGA guide there is a part that says every agreement should be in writing.

• “A Client’s Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process” AIGA. (2001). PDF. New York City; Richard Grefé, AIGA. 
• “Use of Illustration” AIGA. (2001). PDF. New York City; Richard Grefé, AIGA. 
• “Guide to Copyright” AIGA. (2001). PDF. New York City; Richard Grefé, AIGA.