October 28, I read an interesting article about a CEO who set minimum salary for his workers to at least $70,000 dollars and now he’s receiving backlash for it. The name said CEO is Dan Price and in order to make up the difference, Price cut his one million dollar salary to $70,000. Not only that but he mortgaged his house, sold all of his investments to create a nest egg of three million dollars for his company, Gravity Payments. Usually when one hears that a CEO has been this generous with their employees, one would expect that nothing but praises would be heaped in his general direction but that was not the case. In fact he is being sued by his own brother, Lucas, a minority shareholder in Gravity Payments. The damages from the suit might cost the company one million dollars worth of legal bills. The story goes on citing criticism from others stating that it was a publicity stunt, to his own veteran workers, who apparently quit over the new policy. For a few moments I just sat back and let the story digest. And the only question I can ask myself is “what the heck is wrong with people?” I mean seriously, in a generation where the wealth gap is getting larger and larger, something like this happens and people complain about it? Yeah, it is officially I do not understand people…At all. If you would like to read the story for yourself here is the link:  http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/09/news/gravity-payments-dan-price-70k-salary/

Finally New York Artwing decided a logo for Big production which is new production company. They choose simple old fashion typewriter style logo, even they don’t want to color on it.

This is it

Since I got a confirm for the logo, I talked about the web-site with my supervisor. They wanted also simple web-site and showed me a example web site. It was really simple. Logo and navigation were on the top and huge retina image took most of the page. I understood that showing image is very important because it is production and events company.

After we discussed about how looks like, I asked some information about company and images. They never sent me anything. I couldn’t wait for so long. I made a mockup using logo and images from internet and then show them.

They really liked it. So now I can work on coding, and I asked some information again.

Its November 9, 2015, I’m pretty out of it today. The weather this fall has been strange. This has to be one of the warmest autumns; we’ve had in a while. However, we did have a few chilly days. I’ve been dressing properly, all of this autumn and yet I managed to catch a cold. Sigh… today it will be tough working with a congested sinus.

I am currently interning at City Tech Image & Visual Communications office. Today, I rolled into the office around 10 a.m., looking pale like a zombie. First thing, as I got in the office, I met with Mr. Vargas in his room. We had a discussion about the new project. For the new project, I will be creating a logo for the City Tech Alumni Associations mentoring program called “PG4U” (Professional Growth For You). The logo must be similar to the Alumni Associations logo.

I started to do research on the City Tech Alumni Associations; to learn about what they do, and offer for City Tech Alumni’s. I also printed out a meeting memo, from the City Tech website because the Alumni Associations logo was on it. Next, I started to sketch thumbnails for the PG4U logo. Near, the end of the day Mr. Vargas, took a look at my thumbnails. He helped me out a little and sketched some thumbnails of his own. He wanted me to try different variations, of the examples he sketched.

I’m glad he has me working on logos using typography. It’s something I need to practice and improve on. These projects are helping me out significantly with my typographic skills.

Note: working sick stinks but I made it!

Eleventh Entry: November 10^th. I’ve decided to part ways with my Cre@tive Design Internship to focus primarily on my Internship with Sprint. The hours are more flexible with my schedule and most of the work is very hands on. I’m learning a lot about finances and market research. Kevin had given the Team a task to survey people in the park on what they expect from their Wireless carriers, and were asked to rank the Carriers based on what they know so far. Sadly, to say Sprint wasn’t at the forefront of their answers. A lot of the damage was due to a poor network build out of the LTE services, which caused a large shift in perception. This outdoor mission lasted about 2 hours, in which I had to then relay the information the head of Market Research in the department, Anna. She took a look at the results and mentioned how it lined up with what the company had suspected.

Ever since Marcelo became CEO, there has been a large focus on trying to gain subscriber growth, but that would be very difficult if customers felt the service was unreliable. A lot of the new game plan, has to do with how people on the front line shape the consumers, i.e. the Retail Locations and Customer Care. Both aspects of the business interacted with the customers directly and decided whether or not the customer will recommend your service to a family member or friend. If you have a person who is willing to promote a brand, chances are you will have a better chance of growth – even without Advertising or Commercializing plans or new devices. The Team spent the past 3 days focusing on perception on the consumer level. Almost 12 hours collecting data. Some people couldn’t understand why AT&T and Verizon customers were being offered “Half Off’ rate plans, but T-Mobile customers were not. They felt it was unfair and that T-Mobile was in fact the true rival to Sprint since they past Sprint earlier this year. They’ve had the largest spike in subscriber additions in 8 years. In wrapping up my meetings yesterday, Kevin advised that I was at 61 hours so far, and could easily achieve 100 by December if I kept the meetings consistent. It’s not necessarily an easy thing to accomplish, but I’m determined. My last few weeks have been – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 AM – 2PM. I’ve made arrangement with my manager to schedule me for closing shifts and sacrificing my lunch break to make this possible.

Its November 3, 2015, slowly winter is approaching. This is my last semester at City Tech. Finally all the dedication and hard work will grant me a Bachelor’s degree. I’ve been at City Tech far too long now. I’m excited because I never thought I would get this far. Once this semester is over, I can finally say I have a Bachelor’s degree.

However, there’s still about a month left and let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I must still get through internship class. I am currently interning at City Tech Image & Visual Communications. Just like every other day; I rolled into the office cheerfully I said “good morning” and got prepared to work. I looked around and saw the Alumni department was busy as usual. My supervisor Mr. Vargas gave me a new task to work on and told me to hold off with revising the City Tech Wi-Fi logo.

Today, I worked in Photoshop’s camera RAW and adjusted the lighting, contrast, and saturation of 28 photos. Each photo portrayed one or more school security guard’s. One of the security guard’s was sitting next to a woman in a lavender shirt. They are seated behind, a table that is covered by a blue cloth. On the top of the table there are pamphlets about New York City emergency plans for pets and people, opening up business in New York City and a laptop. Students are gathered around the table asking questions to the security guard.

It was definitely a productive day because I haven’t worked in camera RAW for a long time. Working in camera RAW today, helped understand how to adjust the lighting, contrast, and saturation of the photos.

The last time, I shared how foods can make our lives healthier and last longer. This time, I would like to share about “Tai Chi,” that it too can make our lives healthier and last longer.

Tai Chi can help to improve balance and stability in older people and in those with Parkinson’s disease. It also reduces back pain and pain in the knee (osteoarthritis). It also can improve the quality of life in people with heart disease, cancer, and other chronic illnesses.

An analysis from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, from seven small and moderately-sized clinical studies, concluded that a twelve week course of tai chi reduced pain and improved function in people with these condition.

The NCCIH is supported research suggests that practicing Tai chi may help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, and can also improve mood and self-esteem.

I myself have had a pain in my knee and had to do physical therapy. My friends suggested me to buy a supplement that has glucosamine chondroitin. However, both have not worked for me. Therefore, I try to find some videos from YouTube about Tai chi. Whenever I have time, I will open the tai chi videos and follow them to do the exercises.

No matter if it can cure the pain in my knee or not, I think it is good to do exercise every day. Regular physical exercise can give you a healthier life. Therefore, everyone should do exercise no matter what kind of exercise you are doing. Sometime, I am lazy to do exercise and think I should not have any excuse.

Life is short.   Therefore, I would like to share how  eating influences our life. By eating certain foods, we can live a longer and healthier life.  And also through exercise which is a powerful tool for improving our health.

The largest killer in the United States is heart disease, we can eat more avocados that help to keep our heart healthy and improve our odds of a long life.  Avocados can lower our LDL “bad” cholesterol while raising your HDL “good” levels, and they help our body absorb heart-healthy vitamins like beta-carotene and lycopene.

The second killer in the United States is cancer. Lycopene is an important nutrient in the fight against cancer.  There is no better source than rosy red tomatoes.  You can eat them cooked, in pasta sauce, tomato soup, or chutney.

We know that getting more fiber is good for our health. Experts say that fiber can protect against diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and obesity, and can reduce cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. Therefore, we should eat more whole grains foods.

While many experts say that organic foods are nutritionally the same as their conventionally grown counterparts, however, a few studies have shown that foods grown without pesticides have higher levels of vitamin C, and other immunity-boosting antioxidants.

Regular physical exercise and health foods can lower our risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some forms of cancer, and depression. Therefore, no matter how busy we are, we should try to do exercise every day.  Even ten minutes is fine, as long as it adds up to about three hours of moderate exercise per week.

Tenth Entry: November 3^rd. Wow, November already, the time is just flying by. My nerves have not gotten any better, I’m still just as tense and they doodling has subsided a bit. I’ve been doing a bit of reading this time around.

 In regards to my Internships, Cre@tive Designs has been kind of touch and go. Everything is remote work. Rico will e-mail me something then call me immediately after, to see if I got it. He doesn’t pressure me on any work AT ALL. Which I find both very intriguing and annoying. Right now I’m illustrating a few tattoo designs for a start-up digital-pen company, Lera. He’s so hands off that when I e-mail him some ideas back, he just replies…”Not bad, trying adding some more detail and some color.” I’m dying for him to be MORE specific. Sprint, on the other hand, has been really uplifting.

Starting every meeting with a cup of coffee is nice. It’s become a ritual, as if no one in that entire office has any issues with caffeine. Linda, one of the interns there is always bugging me, “Hey, Travis are you alive and awake? Need some coffee?” Everyone must be addicts or something, but I don’t complain. I suppose they just really want to make sure everybody has the energy to get work done, especially since we are sitting a majority of the time, they don’t want the day to drag. We start off with round table discussions on this we found interesting in the week, whether it be Ad related or just something in the news. Katie, one of the managers who works with Kevin, is persistent in picking my brain for something interesting.

Sprint actually posted the campaign online that I was referencing last week, about a few days ago. Right on Halloween if I’m not mistaken. Here’s the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh5zfHgeVr8. I love the added graphics to the logo and the new #MoveForward tag. Before it used to be #GettingBetterEveryday. It’s a better approach with move forward since the message is the same and the hashtag itself comes across easier. It’s short and sweet. When our meetings are over for the week, I have to catch Kevin up to speed to make sure he’s logging everything in. “Don’t sweat it, you worry too much. I think you’re at 20 hours total or something…or was it 2 and a half?” Rest assured I know I’m at 48. I shouldn’t always look into it so much, but I overwhelmed with the semester and can’t afford to lose track of time.