Luke El Dib's ePortfolio

I had recently found out about the Society of the Scared Pixel, a smaller scale networking event hosted via zoom for anyone interested in joining a discussion about design. Every week, on Sundays at 4PM, it is hosted by a new, actively practicing designer, who bring their own unique blend of insights. I thought this to be a nice contrast to my first networking event, which was conversely a multi-million dollar production hosted by the biggest megacorp in the design software realm. This weeks host was Nickolette Phillips, a designer specializing in Virtual Fashion, which from my understanding is the equivalent of a fashion-focused cloth sim, that extends beyond just 3D modelling and mockups. The event was much more intimate than Adobe MAX, and I found myself preferring that setting as it made for less of a “guided tour” like experience, and more of a “book club” environment. Nickolette had a lot of interesting ideas particularly pertaining to the evolution of fashion design, and how current technology, unlike the consumer market, has actually made the creation of physical design much easier than it has ever been. She attributed it primarily to the ability to ideate quickly, efficiently and precisely without ever having to have spent a dime on fabrics or the skill and precisions that an experimental seamstress would have to already possess. There was even an attendee who shared similar interests to my own and made a comment on how 3D printing as an industry has also taken off in a massive way primarily for it’s accessibility in allowing more and more people to ideate within the confines of physics and their imagination. I plan on attending at least a couple more times, as 3 attendances to their regularly-scheduled Sunday meetings actually enables you to request a portfolio-review session, which I think is a really clever way to retain people, and build community quickly. It helps negate that gap between the otherwise abstract idea of “industry” and brings it back to your work instead.

Got a lot of features implemented this week that I thought would be tricky to achieve and I’m quite happy about it. I got the account system working for visitors and contributors, a system that holds new events pending review of the admin, a new landing page, a featured events section, a way for users to submit events, an RSVP system (that still needs work), and many insightful discussions with Liz. I appreciate her willingness to “discuss” as opposed to “decide”. For example, with the layout of this new WIP home page, we discussed the hierarchy of things, she suggested maybe having the option to list a jam being as important as finding one, to which I rebutted that most will find this site first in search of a jam, as opposed to a way to host one, discussed monetization strategies. Another example was how to handle the free songbook download for the site in an automated fashion. My suggestion was to have a user require a login to get it (as the objective is to collect emails for her newsletter), whereas she said she didn’t want to clutter up the userbase on the site with people who showed up for a pdf, in effect, so we settled on a login-agnostic form that collects your name, email and zip code instead, and then takes you to the pdf on confirmation. Still much to work on, next week I’d like to figure out the “featured event” category and how that plays out on the homepage, how to emphasize the events, podcasts and resources that she’s already produced to new users, etc…

This week, I attended Adobe’s MAX event. While I was honestly underwhelmed with the AI-based iterations they made to their creative suite, the actual workshops (which of course, also found a way to shove in discussion about FireFly AI) were really engaging, and gave me a surprising amount of insight for the sheer scope of people who use the Adobe creative suite. As for the internship itself, I’ve made some great progress with Liz thus far. I am quite grateful to have such a wide range of problems to solve with designing the bluegrassjamsnearme.com site, as it’s been putting almost all my strengths to use; coding, web design, UX/UI, Logo design, among others. I have practically transformed the site in most functional ways. It went from initially being effectively a standard WordPress site, with a blog-like UX that involved just looking at a list on arrival, to a functional, geolocating map that finds the nearest events to the user, and actually lives up to the name of the site. There are still many challenges, of course, like making it all user friendly so Liz doesn’t have to learn PHP just to make changes to the site, and getting the Google Maps API to cooperate, but otherwise, I’m quite hopeful about getting the site feature-complete before the end of my internship

I am very fortunate to have landed an internship with Miss Liz Wolfe! I was a little nervous about my ability to land an internship at this stage in the semester but am very happy with where I’ve landed with the help and support of Professor Goetz. I have a very uniquely wide breadth of things I hope to learn from Miss Wolfe, as she has her hands in many pots. Aside from her primary source of income, Liz Wolfe Coaching (a entrepreneurial advancement coaching program), she is also involved with Maximize CRM, a bluegrass group she helps organize collaboratively with Jam Jersey, which she’s also involved with and has produced and hosted podcast episodes for. It gives me the opportunity to work with all the various roles of such endeavors, including the business end of things (how do we monetize something like this?), outreach, web design, organization of events, and even the actual jams that bluegrass groups participate in. There’s already a lot to learn. Ms Wolfe and I have already had our first meeting to discuss logistics (what platforms we will be using to stay organized, remote vs in person, etc…) and I am currently getting my timesheet and self-management tools up and running in preparation for my first real day on the job. Ms Wolfe seemed initially worried that I wouldn’t have enough to do for the course of the internship without her guidance, as her time is often scarce from all the different projects and endeavors she’s engaged in, after much discussion even just in our interview, it’s no longer as much of a concern as she seems pleased by my initiative, and technical ability which I hope to deliver on. I am also very fortunate to have a singular internship to satisfy the requirements of the course, as I already have many other commitments and responsibilities (design team, senior project, my two other jobs, the rest of my life, sleep) to keep up with so having less division here is better rather than worse. I am participating in Adobe Max Tomorrow as well as my networking event requirement, and look forward to all the non-AI related advancements Adobe has come up with, as well as getting involved with other creatives through their online workshops.

Not fantastic news this week. I’m still looking for an internship. I’m waiting to hear back from my friend’s tattoo artist about a possible social media spot. The IRC still hasn’t downloaded my WeTransfer with the photography portfolio from our interview (it expires in a day), and they never replied to my follow up email. So I’m guessing they went in a different direction. The Faculty Commons Design Team also passed. At least they sent a clear “no,” which I honestly appreciate.

So, new plan. I’m focusing on my interview with Liz Wolfe this week and getting that prepped properly. I’m also registering as an online attendee for Adobe MAX. It’s not the same as being there, but I can still learn a lot and maybe find a few leads. I’m going to dig for other events running at the same time and see what I can join virtually.

Overall, this stretch has been a patience test. I’m trying to keep momentum without burning out. Portfolio stays updated. Applications keep going out. I’ll keep following up, keep showing up, and build around any “no” I get. One good “yes” is all I need.

I had my interview with the IRC this week, and I think it went pretty well. The course content we’ve covered so far actually helped more than I expected. It made me a lot more comfortable talking about my skills and framing my experience in a way that makes sense professionally.

I also had an interview with the Faculty Commons Design Team. That one felt solid too — the people there seemed genuinely interested, so here’s hoping something comes of it.

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about networking. I’ve realized that LinkedIn, as much as I dislike it, might actually be necessary. I can’t stand how fake it feels, but I see why it matters — especially for someone in my position. A senior design student can’t afford to be invisible.

I’ve also started asking around through friends instead of just relying on job boards. Turns out, one of them knows a tattoo artist looking for a social media intern. Which, honestly, proves the point we discussed in class: people prefer working with people they like, not necessarily people who are the best at the job. It’s kind of reassuring on a personal level, but a little terrifying if you think about how that scales in society. Still — I’ll take the odds where I can get them.

I finally got an interview and started doing some work for the Katra Film Festival. It felt good to actually get my hands on something, even if it was mostly small production and review tasks. Unfortunately, I later found out it doesn’t count toward my internship credit, which definitely took the wind out of my sails a bit.

I’ve got an interview with the IRC next week, and that’s still my top pick. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, but it’d be great to finally lock something in that aligns with what I’m studying. Either way, I can’t really afford to stop searching yet. Just like a real job, it makes sense to keep applying even while something’s pending.

If there’s one thing this whole process has made clear, it’s how under-networked I am on a professional level. There’s a lot of room for improvement there. I’ve also learned that a ton of these listings are either placeholders for future openings or just there to make a company look like it’s expanding. Some of them even seem to have been filled months ago.

At this point, I’ve completely dropped the requirement of finding a paid position. I’d rather get the internship done and gain experience than keep holding out for one that checks every box.

This week I finally cut my resume down to one page. It used to be two, which felt excessive considering half of it was restaurant work. It showed loyalty and consistency, sure, but not much relevance to a design internship. Once I trimmed it down, it looked a lot cleaner and more focused.

I actually got a response this week—from a Craigslist posting, of all places. The company is Katra Film Series, a film festival based around the Bowery. The role sounds like a mix between design-related tasks and production grunt work—reviewing contestant footage, setting up gear, that sort of thing. I’m not totally sure if it qualifies as an internship for my class, but it’s the first one that wrote back, so I’ll see how it plays out while I wait for confirmation.

In the meantime, I found a few other listings that feel more aligned with what I actually want to do. One in particular caught my eye—a Youth Photography Teaching Assistant position for the International rescue Committee. That one’s right up my alley. I speak Arabic and French, and, more importantly, I’ve taken a photo before. Jokes aside, it’d be a great fit. After exhausting every possible option on Handshake, it’s nice to finally feel like things might be moving in the right direction.

This week I learned that “resume” and “CV” aren’t the same thing—at least not in the U.S. Apparently, in Europe they’re interchangeable, but here a CV means your full work history, and a resume just highlights what’s relevant. I had been using the terms like they meant the same thing, but I’ve since cut down my “American CV” into a proper resume. Thankfully, Indeed makes it easy to swap out and re-upload documents without much hassle.

I’ve also widened my job search to include Craigslist, and refined it to more specific fields that actually interest me—mainly photography, web design, and video editing. What I didn’t expect was how many social media marketing internships there are in comparison. It feels like every other listing is just another unpaid “content strategy” role.

I did get a few responses this week, but a couple turned out to be scams. Just a quick Google search of their domain names threw up all the red flags I needed to see. It’s been a good reminder to stay skeptical, even when I’m eager to find something that fits.