lau ash

I feel truly blessed and grateful for my rewarding and educational internship at TANKIndustries. From day one, I was eager to understand my responsibilities and integrate into the team. Our daily remote meetings and consistent communication through Slack kept me organized and connected.

One of my first major projects involved developing business cards and letterheads for an IP lawyer. This introduced me to the concept of creating a visual landscape, helping me balance creativity with professionalism. Seeing the design process come together was incredibly satisfying. Shortly after, I had the opportunity to work with a pharmaceutical client, attending my first client meeting. Observing the decision-making process and seeing how client feedback shaped the final products was insightful and inspiring.

I also embraced the challenge of creating illustrative vignettes for a PR company, which allowed me to focus on improving my vector skills. Adapting to a style featuring black line drawings with pops of orange was both exciting and demanding. Drawing hands proved to be challenging but offered excellent practice, helping me refine my skills. Additionally, I edited a “how-to” video for a client, using my video editing knowledge to produce a professional and effective final product.

My time at TANK Industries was both challenging and fulfilling. I gained confidence in my design abilities and learned to adapt to different styles and client needs. I developed a structured workflow involving research, initial sketches, iterative design, and finalizing concepts, which streamlined my projects and enhanced my ability to deliver polished results. These experiences have prepared me for a successful career in design, and I am filled with hope and gratitude for the future.

1. Law Firms: Emphasizing Trust and Professionalism

• Simplicity and Elegance: Law firms require designs that are simple, elegant, and exude professionalism. Clean lines, classic fonts, and muted color schemes are commonly used.
• Formal Typography: Serif fonts are often preferred for their traditional, trustworthy, and classy appearance.

For Kar IP Law’s business cards and letterheads I stayed to a very minimalistic design and pulled inspiration from modernistic design with bold shapes and typography. Because he works in intellectual property law, I tried to be subtly artsy in my design choices. The client works a lot with artists so I felt that combining traditional design with an artistic touch was perfect for the client’s collateral.

2. Pharmaceutical Companies: Professionalism and Innovation

• Clean and Modern: Designs are clean and modern, with an emphasis on  readability.
• Scientific Imagery: Subtle use of scientific imagery or symbols can be incorporated to reflect the industry’s focus.
• Color Psychology: Colors like blue and green are commonly used for their associations with health, trust, and innovation.

At TANKindustries, the design process is a blend of creativity, collaboration, and attention to detail. Here’s a glimpse into how I have been developing the projects I was assigned to:

1. Meet with Client/ Conceptualize
First, we start with a meeting to understand the client’s vision, goals, and requirements. Along with this, the client or the creative director and I brainstorm and explore various creative directions that aligns with the client’s brand.

2. Research and Create Figma Jam Board
We then compile visual research on a Figma Jam Board to visualize our ideas and collaborate as a team.

3. Initial Compositions
After, our team creates the first design drafts, focusing on capturing the essence of the concept.

4.Feedback from Art Director

The art director then reviews the first compositions, providing feedback and offering any further insights on changes.

5. Second Draft
Incorporating the art director’s feedback, we revise the designs.

6. Repeat Feedback Loop
We continue revising and getting feedback until the design is perfected.

7. Final and Pitch to Client
After final refinements, we present the complete design to the client, aiming to finalize the project and exceed their expectations.

All art is my own for TANKindustries

This week at TANK Industries was relatively slow. I only worked the first couple of days and took the rest of the week off for the 4th of July. The project I’m wrapping up my internship with involves sketching and vectorizing illustrations for a PR firm’s website, aiming to match their existing art style. Initially, I planned to complete only two out of the nine illustrations, but I’ve managed to sketch three so far, with two more to go. Next week, I’ll be focusing on vectorizing these illustrations and finalizing the project for the firm.

My mentor and boss mentioned that if I don’t finish the project by the end of the internship, he would hire me as a freelance designer to complete it. This opportunity is really exciting and gives me added motivation to perfect my work.

Despite the short week, I’ve found this project to be a valuable experience, allowing me to apply and expand my skills in both sketching and vectorizing. I’m looking forward to the next steps and the possibility of continuing my work with the firm as a freelancer to finish this project.

This week was both enjoyable and refreshing due to my new projects. I spent part of my week editing a “how-to” video for a client’s website. The product featured in the video is a solution for managing extra reusable bags. It involves a mailer bag sent to your home, where you pack clean reusable bags to be shipped out for sorting and redistribution. I used my knowledge from my Intro to Video class to splice the provided clips together. Hopefully, the video will be up on the client’s site before the class ends, so everyone can view it.

After completing that project, I started illustrating scenes for a PR company’s website, specifically for their “Industries” pages. The client’s company draws a lot of inspiration from James Joyce’s book Ulysses. Using research about the book, another illustrator and I are creating scenes that align with the company’s narrative. I am working on imagery for the pages “Corporate Social Impact,” “Advocacy Organizations,” and “Pharmaceuticals/Biotech.”

My workflow consists of research, followed by initial sketches or concepts, then more developed concepts, and finally the finished piece. This is a simplified version of the detailed process I follow.

This week during my internship at TANK Industries, my team and I successfully wrapped up a project. It was incredibly rewarding to see the entire process unfold, from design and selection to the specific workflow of the segment I contributed to. For a pharmaceutical company, another designer and I developed letterheads and business cards. This came after several months of conceptualizing and designing a logo (a phase I wasn’t involved in) that harmonized with other industry brands while also standing out uniquely.

I’ve now started a new project: creating illustrations that I will convert to vectors for a PR company. I’m really excited about this opportunity because I’d like to improve my vector skills. However, a challenge lies in replicating the style of an existing illustrator on the project. This style features black line drawings with a pop of orange, a primary color in their brand assets. My focus this week has been on gathering reference photos, making initial sketches, and drafting first versions.

One particular challenge I’ve faced is drawing hands. Although I took a figure drawing class a couple of semesters ago, it didn’t cover hands extensively. I feel a bit less confident about the hands in each sketch, but it’s excellent practice.

The way that this has influenced my work flow in the future, it to make sure that any piece of art that is not my own is properly credited. It is also imperative to make sure to be completely transformative in your use of the image, otherwise you are simply making a derivative work that the original image creator would have rights over.  In the past, when I was creating my own online magazine and displaying local artists’ art I made sure to always acquire adequate information to credit them. I even went a step further and provided the reader links to their social medias.

In my internship at TANKindustries, the importance of giving credit to others’ creative work is paramount, reflecting ethical considerations emphasized in the Shepard Fairey copyright case and the AIGA Design and Business Ethics Handbook. While working on various design projects, I’ve encountered situations where referencing external designs, inspirations, or concepts is necessary. In these instances, I’ve made it a priority to clearly attribute sources and seek appropriate permissions when incorporating elements that aren’t original to our work. By applying these principles, I contribute to a workplace environment where creative contributions are acknowledged and valued, aligning with the ethical guidelines that govern our industry.

“AIGA Design and Business Ethics Handbook.” AIGA, 2021, www.aiga.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Design-Business-and-Ethics.pdf.

Fisher, William, et al. “Reflections on the Hope Poster Case.” Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, vol. 25, 2012, p. 244.

Upon entering my first couple weeks on my internship at TANKindustries, I had to sign a work for hire agreement that disclosed many clauses that stated that I couldn’t share or post any of the artwork or collateral made for TANKindustries, unless the client gave permission. Also, all of the work that is made under their contract is not my property, it’s the firm’s. The great thing about my internship is that my boss, Jason Falk, is my former professor. He taught the class a lot of things pertaining to this subject and it was a seamless transition to the internship.

According to the AIGA Design and Business Ethics Handbook, respecting client confidentiality and intellectual property rights is paramount in maintaining professional integrity. Following this, understanding the Shepard Fairey copyright case, where Fairey used an AP image for the iconic “Hope” poster during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, has highlighted the importance of respecting copyright and intellectual property laws in my work.

 

“AIGA Design and Business Ethics Handbook.” AIGA, 2021, www.aiga.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Design-Business-and-Ethics.pdf.

Fisher, William, et al. “Reflections on the Hope Poster Case.” Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, vol. 25, 2012, p. 244.

Entering the second week of my TANK Industries internship, I was introduced to my second client, a pharmaceutical company for which Jason and the firm had designed logos a few weeks earlier. On May 28, I participated in my first client meeting. My task was to observe the clients’ body language and take notes on the logos they seemed to prefer. The goal of the presentation was for the client to select a primary logo and color-way. Luckily, the result of the meeting was positive and very streamlined; the client unanimously came to a decision on their new logo.

I began my designs by gathering various assets and brand elements to support my work. To provide some background on the client, they are a “clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to treating and preventing immune and autoimmune disorders¹”. We incorporated the shape of a polyclonal antibody, which is integral to their scientific process, into their collateral to emphasize the scientific element of their work. The use of a ‘humanistic’ type face for the logo design also contributed an organic approach to the design of the business cards and letterheads.

 

 

 

¹ https://www.sab.bio/home/about-us/