This blog post is going to be my last blog post. For the last, I want to talk about my presentation and what I learn from internship.

On Dec 9th, I had a presentation about my internship experience. I tried as much as I learned from a video called “How to avoid death from powerpoint” by David JP Phillips. After I presented my first internship experience. I thought it was not good presentation. I used white text on plain dark blue background and I don’t use big and highlight headline. Also I tried not to have more than six objects per slide and I use keywords instead of sentences. After my presentation, I thought it might be better if I have more information about me and more talk about what I learn from internship. More over I need to practice my speaking skill.

Internship in Artwing NY was my first internship. One thing I didn’t like is that I don’t have any experience of culture and environment of office. This is because of Artwing’s office is being renovated. I have never been office. What I did is design a logo and building web-side for new launching company named Big production. My supervisor was good person personally, but he was too busy. I have waited many time for project. Overall my experience was good. Now I have get a job. I’m pretty sure that life at work will be better.

In class, I watched a video about presentation. Presentation is really important for us. I mean people in design area. We all know that. the video changed mu whole thought about presentation. The vide categorized five keywords: one message per a slide, working memory, size, contrast and six object per a slide.

First of all, “one message per slide’ means literally a slide should have one message. Human brain is not good as much as people think. If a slide has more than one message, people forget 80% of message in 6 seconds.

second, “working memory” means slides should hot have sentences. People’s brain doesn’t work reading and listening together. So if slides have sentences, people can’t listen your speaking.

Third, people focus on four things: moving object, contrast object, bug object and signaling color(red, orange, green).  That means you should use the four elements when you make slides to catch people’s eyes.

Four, “contrast control you focus” means you don’t need fancy, beautiful, elegance background. White text on dark plain background is enough.

Last, “six object per slide” means literally a slide should not have more than six object like head line, image, or keywords. Amount of slides in powerpoint is not a problem. It is the amount of object per slides.

This video was pretty interesting. I will have presentation for internship class. I will try as much as I learned from this video

Last Friday, I met scott who is my supervisor. I showed basic structure of “big production” web-site. Even though I have basic structure of website, he really liked it. However I have some issues. First of all, home page image which is given by scott is not enough big to use home page image. If it is showed in big monitor, it’s gonna be pixelated. Second he didn’t give me any information about the company and client list. I can’t fill out the sections. Last, he didn’t send me advertising, e-commerce,product shots, editorial and events pictures. Pictures are really important because it is production company. It is based on photograph. I asked that again. After we had meeting, I asked evaluation of internship. I am finished 120 hours but I will finish this web-site. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have any experience of culture or environment of office, but I learn a lot such as working with someone who is higher position and responsibility.

A few days ago, I got a text message from one of my friends. She wondered if I’m looking for a job. She said that there is a position in her company. It is about organizing digital files. I didn’t know what it does exactly, so I told her I’m in graphic design major and about to graduate. She said her company has creative department so I can do graphic design work or web design. I thought it is a good opportunity. Honestly I can’t take the job right now because I have to do school work, intern, and another part-time job. I don’t have enough time to do that. I asked her if it is possible to work one or two days or wait for me until I finish school. I know it doesn’t make sense. There is no company waiting for worker. However I don’t have any other choice. She said she will take about that with her manager. I just hope that it is still available when I’m done school.

After I finished logo for “big production”, I was about to make a mockup. Basically Artwing is a photography agency. Photographs are really important. A photo can make totally different web-site. So I needed some information of the company and some pictures for home page and project page. I asked them before I begin to design.  Because the New York Artwing’s office is being renovated, I usually work on bean n bean cafe in Manhattan. When I work on cafe, my supervisor, scott, visit me and discuss about the project. However since that day, he never come to cafe and email me in two weeks. Finally, I got an email from him. He said that he wanted to see the progress. I felt that I had to show something, so I made a mockup using image from internet. I asked why you didn’t email me. He said he didn’t know he got mail from me. I wanted to say something. I thought it waste my time. Anyways he really likes my mock up. we discussed lay out and main category. He wanted very simple website even doesn’t want slides show.

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.

As I mentioned earlier, The artwing ny is now trying to launch brand new production company called Big production and events. They hired me to do make a web site for that. However they asked me to do logo design first and then web design. I didn’t know why they want me to do logo design instead of another intern who is majoring in graphic design, but I accepted. There was no reason for not taking the job.

They wanted very simple logo design. They didn’t want graphic logo, but letter logo using old fashion typewriter font style. I thought that is much easier, but this was not going well. While I sketched logo, I realized that it is really hard to design logo using only letters. I meant it is not hard to design logo, but that is normal logo. I wanted amazing logo or fantastic logo. I sketched four pages logo and converted it digitally. I sent it to them. I’m waiting for confirm.

One day I talked about my situation with my supervisor at the lunchtime. First of all, I’m an international student from South Korea and I’m about to graduate. It’s time to make a decision either staying here or going back to my country. I want to build my career, which is web designer in here, but it is not easy to get a job for international students. Basically international students who have F-1 visa go back to their country after graduate school. If you want to stay more, you have to find a company that will sponsor you. The company has to pay more taxes for hiring foreigner. That means you are supposed to have super talent. In terms of web designer, my career is not quite bright, because so many people can make web site and many companies offer templates website for free. That means that one and only way to survive here is to have ability to make amazing web sites.

In class, I read a pretty interesting article titled “Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture” by Chantal Panozzo. In short, the author who moved to Switzerland for almost a decade compares and contrasts two cultures: America and Switzerland.

First thing I was surprised about is workers’ income. The average Swiss workers’ income is about $91,000 a year while the average America is about $55,000. I thought Swiss is a small country in Europe and America is one of the biggest countries economically. I was totally wrong.

In addition, if you eat lunch at your desk to save your work time, your boss smiles. In Swiss, however, your boss and co-worker scold you. Lunchtime is sacred time in Switzerland.

My country, which is Korea, is the same as United States. Everybody looks busy and social welfare is really poor. People can’t even spend whole vacation. Many politicians try to improve social welfare but still it needs some change. As an international student who needs to get a job, this article makes me think about where I should work.

I want to talk about business manners. Last week, I had an appointment with my supervisor to talk about project I’m working on. He scheduled at 1:00 pm, but he didn’t show up over the 30minute. Since I didn’t know his phone number, I email him to see he was coming. After 10 minute later, I got email from him. He said that he got stuck at his office on big job that he had to handle. I was upset because he didn’t say anything until I emailed him. I think that is so mean. I understand it can be happened. Life is unpredictable. I think he should have told me earlier. As an intern, I am not very important person for him. However, I thought it is really important meeting and I spent more than 2hours to go to Manhattan from Queens. I believe that keeping appointment is very important in business. I hope it is not going to happen again.