October 5, 2015,
I’ve been looking for any prospective internships while redoing my print portfolio, by this point I pretty much left my website portfolio to the side for a later date. In the back of my mind it’s coming well, deconstructing my old assignments and seeing how I did them. At times I would stop and look at the original and then the reconstruction realizing I finished much faster than when I first did it. Was it because I had learned what to do from my previous experiences? Or that it took me less time simply because I knew what I was going to do? Honestly, it was both, 30% experience and 70% knowing what to do. Anytime I received a project on a certain brand it would take me weeks to figure out what I wanted to do.

The first week I would spend researching a little, gathering symbols and at whatnot to get the sense of the company. The second week I would throw all of that in the garbage (figuratively speaking) and just look up tutorials for cool effects and just do them, just to see which one I liked. By the end of the second week, I didn’t care too much about the previous day’s work and that too would be in the garbage. By then I had some inkling of what it was that I wanted to convey, and it was then I started my work. I would like to say this has changed, but it hasn’t. It has always taken me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. Only once did I have an idea that I liked that I ran with and even then I spent some time being intimidated by the blank Photoshop file. Did that mean I hated critiques? No, personally I was never afraid of critiques as a matter of fact, I welcomed them. Mostly because I never really had a project that I liked beyond reason.

Which raises the question, was there ever a project that I loved doing? The answer to that is a resounding no.

September 25, 2015,
The most wonderful thing happened today, I have no internet. Well, that is not completely true. Word of warning, if you are planning to return a few cable boxes to Time Warner Cable, expect some downtime with your internet service. While the remaining cable boxes worked fine, internet service was almost non-existent. It would come on for about two to five minutes before turning off. After one hour of this I got on the phone with Time Warner Cable’s customer service, and scheduled for a technician to arrive on September 29th, it was the only time slot that was available. In either case, this happening wasn’t so bad. Despite the fact I was unable to finish my portfolio website (or look at cute videos of kittens on YouTube), I had to find something to do. So I started working on the print/pdf version of my portfolio and that got me to realize I did not have enough websites to call myself a web designer. I had far more print projects than I did websites. and the websites I did have were either unfinished or completely down. So I begun deconstructing the print projects I had down over the years and wrote detailed information on how I did them. About three hours later after the initial call I got my internet service back. By then I had already realized what I had to do, continue fixing up my print portfolio while contemplating what cool things I would be doing as an electrician.

The last time I was at the internship site was on October 7. I m currently interning at City Tech Image and Visual Communications and this will be my fifth week there. I rolled into the office and, I cracked a smile and said “good morning” to Ms. Christina and Norma. They both work in the Alumni department in the office.I unpacked and prepared my desk; right before I started working on the City Tech Wi-Fi logo.

The City Tech Wi-Fi logo was coming along quite nicely but, the logo still needed some tweeking. I continued working on fitting the letters, of the word Wi-Fi into the symbol. I had to stretch and thicken the letters; in order for them to fit into the shape. Around, the noon time Mr. Vargas came to check up on my progress. He told me to put the logo to the side and, he gave me a new project to work on. For the new project; I had to masked out the background of two photos of students, with their professors from the Hospitality Management department. After, masking out the background of the two photos; he wanted one of photos grouped with the other. This way the photo would be one whole photo, that consisted of both pictures.

I was on lunch at 1 o’clock and it was time to eat. I ate a sesame bagel and, I drank a Snapple lemon iced tea. Around 2 o’clock, I continued masking out the background of the first photo. Slowly, I started working on the second photo. The more I work on masking out the background of the photos. The better I get at masking out hair, in photos without destroying the image.

In my country, I just finished high school, and then found a job.   The first job was a sales person, my brother’s wife suggested me that I take it.  She said that I could do this business at anytime and anyplace; it gave me a lot of freedom.  The duty of the job was to sell insurance products to clients.  I knew that this was not a suitable job for me due to my character.  I do not want to deal with people.  I just want to work by myself.  However, she said that I should try it, because I did not know what I wanted.  So, I took the job and attended the class to learn their products.  I called my friends and clients to tell them that I would like to introduce the insurance products for them; and that maybe one of our products would be suitable for them.  Most of them knew that I wanted to sell a product to them. They said that they were very busy, and had no time to talk with me.  I really understood that they did not want to buy any insurance products from me.  I did not want to call them and bother them again because I too have had the same experience.

I remembered the first insurance that I bought from my friend. He called me many times, and I did not know how to refuse him.  Finally I bought the life insurance.  My mother said to me, if I do not want to buy, I should resist doing it.  I should not buy something that I do not want.  Even though I felt he was troublesome, I did not know how to refuse him directly.  It is not easy for me to do it.  I called my friends and customers, if they said that they did not have time and refused me several times, I knew I should stop.  I did not want to bother them.  If I do not want a person to treat me like that, I will not do it to them.   It is my personality.

Computer, I hardly remember when the computer was invented.  A long time ago, maybe 1946, at the time, the computer was very heavy. Today, the technology is growing fast, we can carry our computer anywhere. Nowadays, most of the families have their computer at home.  I should say almost everyone owns computer or mobile device.   It becomes more and more popular and important to our society.  It is very useful and helpful in our daily lives.

On the internet, you can find programs or interesting things that you might want to learn. If you don’t know anything, you can go to internet to find out. We can use the computer to watch a movie or play a game.  You can find a lot of online games and play with other people on the computer.  It is fun.

I remember when the hurricane Sandy hit, it made the power cut off for one week at my home.  That whole week, I had nothing to do.  No electrical power, no internet, I could use computer. I discovered that life was boring.  I could not imagine that how I would passed the time without electronic devices.  At that time, I went to sleep at eight. I have never done that before.  It was because I had nothing to do. I could not do anything without the electronic devices.

Every day, I use the computer or mobile device. Electronic devices are very useful; they are part of my life.  I cannot imagine if one day the computers or mobile devices disappear, how it would be?

In the summer, I did not take any class.  My entertainment was watching television.  One story on TV was talking about “you have second life”.  I think it is very good if I had a second life.  If I were to compare my life with my friends, I would say that I am dissatisfied with my life.  I desire happiness. If I have a chance to change my life, I would like to stay in my country.  Everything will be changed.  However, I changed my mind after I watched this story.

This story talks about a man that always complained his wife did not understand him.  He wanted to go back twenty years ago.  He would not have married with his wife.  His future would have been totally different and he would be happy.

One day, he had a supernatural power that allowed him to go back to the past and change his decision.  He did not marry and then he came back to the present. However, he still did not feel happy.  It was not the same as he thought.  He discovered that his wife was intelligent, warm, and had a sense of humor. She always put him as top priority.  He felt his wife was a very good wife.  He had regretted his decision.  He was unhappy.

After I watched this story, it made me think if I should still want to change my life or not.  What would happen if I were to change my life, would it be a  good or bad decision.  I am afraid that if I change my life, it will be worse.  Nobody knows the future.

Hello, my name is Huseyin Akis and it’s my fifth week interning at City Tech Image & Visual Communications office. I rolled into the office at 10 AM with a smile and said “good morning” to my co-workers. I prepared my desk and my spotify playlist before, I started working on the City Tech Wi-Fi logo. This wasn’t the start of the logo, this was the revision phase.

My supervisor Mr. Vargas wanted me to change the font to Helvetica and the typeface to bold. The problem was the original font I used Xsotik, where I downloaded from DaFont.com. The letters of the font Xsotik were too close to each other. Which ended up leaving a lot of space for the shape of the Wi-Fi symbol. I changed the text to Helvetica bold and adjusted the shape of curve of the Wi-Fi symbol.

I took my lunch time at 1 PM, it was time to take a break from the computer screen and time to eat. I had a roast beef sandwich and a Snapple Lemon Iced Tea. I took my lunch break for an hour and then went back to working on the logo. So, I changed the text to Helvetica bold and using the pen tool, I traced over each of the curves on the bottom of symbol.

Finally, I created outlines of the type and used the pathfinder tool to divide the type and the symbol. Mr. Vargas came to my desk around 3:50 PM and said  ” I want you to make fit the words Wi-Fi in the symbol as well”. Just like the way, I fitted the letters inside the symbol in the sketch.

I was out by 4:00 PM and said to my co-workers “good bye, see you tomorrow”.

I want to talk about an article: Gross domestic Freebie by James Surowiecki.

First of all, I was surprised by the number of Twitter’s daily users and its revenue. Even thought Twitter doesn’t charge people to use its technology, it’s revenue is just five hundred ad thirty five million dollars. Also Twitter has more than two hundred and thirty million active users.

Second. I have been curious for long time about some companies that based on web and app. They offer their high technology for free but they keep growth. I don’t understand how they generate income and how they affect on G.D.P. According to the article, the value of information and data part of economy is underestimated. Digital innovation can even shrink G.D.P.

Sixth Entry: October 9^th

In reading the article “Creation Myth” by Malcolm Gladwell, the major message I was able to pull from the reading was that innovation is made from the failures of others. Not one person can birth a successful new idea, but rather a different approach that utilizes the missed opportunities of others.

Originality and innovation are closely related. We think of creative innovators as people with new ideas, but to read Malcolm Gladwell on this topic is to be reminded of a difference. “An innovator may not be the one with the new idea but the one with a new take on an old idea”. Jobs is the thief in the night and Xerox is the unfortunate fool. Jobs understood that it had to change in a dramatic way before it could become viable. You don’t want to be first; you want to be second or third. Facebook isn’t the first in social media, they’re the third and in retrospect, if you look at Steve Jobs’ history, he’s never been first.

I’ve come to realize this is very true in my Internships. A lot of our working ideas are from that of a company who has failed at doing something a certain way. In order to be successful we have to differentiate. Sometimes it means to “reinvent the wheel”.

     Hey, my name is Sekou and these are my experiences as an illustration intern at my school’s in house design studio. I figure there’s no need for this to be boring, so let’s have a some fun with this, shall we.

     Alright, so currently I’m interning at City Tech’s in house design studio on Court Street, Brooklyn; However before I get into that story, I figured i’d start from the beginning of my internship hunting experience via Glassdoor.com.

     So to make a long boring story short, I applied to a whole bunch of places and didn’t really get any callbacks. There specifically was a position for an Editorial Illustration intern at Mashable.com that I wanted to get; it was a paid internship and sounded like a great opportunity, which is why it probably had ten thousand applicants. But hey whatever right? No worries, stiff upper lip and soldier march to the back of the line and try again; just fill out more applications.

     Do you know what the BEST part of applying for internships online is? Sitting through crucibles of pervasive ‘Interview’ questions especially crafted to expose character flaws, test carpal tunnel susceptibility, and make mere mortals flee in terror.  Some of my personal favorites to answer are: “What are your greatest strengths/ weaknesses? , “Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?”, and my new personal favorite courtesy of mashable.com; “In 150 words or less, Describe what makes you unique?”. By the time I made it to that question, I was fighting the urge to write “HIRE ME AND FIND OUT!! MotherF*&%#!”.

Don’t worry, I didn’t actually put that on the application; I wrote something more along the lines of “Unfortunately, I have yet to gain the level of self awareness required to accurately answer such an introspective question; so instead, I will leave you with…I make amazing PB&J sandwiches.”  Still waiting on that reply email; if there is a correlation between sass and unemployment, I have found it.