Final Presentation – Kicking it with KISI

After getting the orders in, we realized what needed to be changed and what was good to go into the device’s packaging. Because of the different printing companies, the stickers printed as a lighter cyan than the original box sticker. While the design quality was great the colors need to match. This is one of the main things I will focus on post internship.

Overall I have enjoyed my internship at KISI inc. My supervisor , Bernhard and his partners were super helpful and guided me along the way. I even asked Bernhard for some pointers for my presentation  just to ensure that I would be representing KISI the right way.  I couldn’t have asked for a better result of this. From initially participating in BTTIP to working at KISI, I feel my knowledge and skills  as a designer have grown and are continuing to get better. Continuing as a Part-Time designer, I will produce even better work, and even begin to develop and pitch my own ideas for the company. As stated in previous journal entries, “Simplicity is Key” I feel that that quote has transferred into others areas of my life, and design outside of KISI. Bernhard told me before making my presentation, about a quote by German designer Dieter Rams. “Good design is as little design as possible.” and followed by saying. Its easier to just throw things on a page, but it is harder to make design simple and functional. This is something I know Ill keep with me and remember forever.

Now approaching the final weeks of this internship, my supervisor wanted to know my future plans. I didn’t have too much going on, so he decided to keep me on part time as a graphic designer. It’s really great to be apart of a growing company where your role is important. KISI currently does not have an in-house designer, and that it is a blessing to be a designer apart of their awesome team. Although I still have a year left before graduation, I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot while interning at KISI. It feels amazing to see my hard work pay off.

After talking to Bernhard about my transition, and progress from when we first met,  he had no idea I was capable of producing the kind of graphics needed because my portfolio displayed more fine-art related graphics. For the first time, I believe I’m beginning to see the difference between Fine-Art and Communication Design. While having studied both being a Fashion Merchandising major before transferring to City Tech, the principals are the same, but the execution and outcome are very different. To me, Fine-Art is dependent upon ones interpretation, while Communication Design is more conceptual, and outcome based.

Furthermore, I’m glad he took a chance on me and in turn I surpassed  his and my expectations. I always want to create innovative things in both Communication Design, and Fine-Art. If its not innovative, its either been done already, or its just boring. The term innovate to me means to excite; excite someone or something.

This week I began working on my first Web based project for KISI. We needed to improve the initial process of figuring out existing lock systems in clients offices. Bernhard wanted to create  consistant visuals which would allow the customer to select their existing lock system. This  will cancel out the previous method which was having the customers send photos. I challenged my perspective as well as sense of lighting  on this project. I feel the only way to grow as a designer is to challenge yourself before you are challenged. Meaning, be innovative, instead of someone who is told what to do. Employers love when an employee or an intern can exceed their expectations. It sets you apart from the many applicants they have for your position.

With that being said, I created 13 doors with various lock systems and door handles. Keeping in mind the fact that the installer would need to not only be able to see the door, and the lock, but also the latches, I chose to illustrate each in an isometric angle. Keeping it simple and clean I chose grey tones so it’s not an over kill of blue and is easy to see in detail. While creating the files were simple, this was one of my more tedious assignments. Everything had to match yet be different. Consistency was the key to this assignment. While the doors varied in many ways the angle and original structure had to be consistent, as well as the image size needed to upload.

This week I went through a lot of the print and production process as a designer which is getting the images and files ready for output. This is the part I felt most nervous about simply because I wanted the files to be correct since there was money being spent on these materials. This is the step where every designer needs to cross their t’s and dot their i’s.

Although I despise Vistaprint in terms of quality, my supervisor decided to use them to print the manuals and spec sheets.  But for the stickers, we used Sticker Mule, which had a better print quality for that purpose, along with a reasonable price. It’s an awesome feeling to know that something youve created will be used to utilized in real life. This somewhat prepared me for what’s  to come after graduation. Keeping the colors simple with the brand and matching them to the web colors and brand’s primary colors, making sure dimensions are correct, checking spelling, is everything I had to go over, before giving the final files to my supervisor. Although I knew he would triple check, I try and get a lot of the minor mistakes out of the way so I seem professional. That is something I tried to keep constant throughout this internship, my professionalism. Even though my workspace is very relaxed, I know I have something to show and prove. Form my initial meeting with Bernhard, I feel I have came a long way and definitely showed him that I am capable of great things, and certainly can handle any task he has for me.

Continuing with the back door stickers, I began by researching competetors and what kind of visuals they offered. I found a lot of them to be somewhat boring and dull without  any real graphical presence. The intentions of this sticker is make KISI stand out as an innovative security system that is very user friendly. It was really important to my supervisor Bernhard, that the stickers appeal to the clients. We want them to be used and places on the doors at their respected offices, not just shoved aside with the packing paper.

Keeping I’m mind KISI brand ethics and cool approach, I began to build off a logo I did for a class project. While the concept was quite simple the delivery need to be on point. I try and make my ideas and pitches as precise as possible so I don’t look like a complete idiot in front of my supervisor. The idea that I came up with focused on the physical more than technical idea of opening a door with your phone. I began to illustrate a hand holding a phone with the KISI logo on it.  I kept it very simple and abstract. I also used the phrase that my supervisor initially gave me which was “thanks for buzzing in with us”. He loved it, and I was glad to be able to deliver on a project where option one through ten didn’t quite work. Thats what it takes to be a great designer and a successful intern. When something doesn’t work, work on it until it does.

This Week I worked on more promotional stickers. As opposed to other promotional stickers, we wanted to make these very user friendly,  and have a little humor behind them.  The purpose of the stickers are to help ease user experience with the KISI system. The stickers this week were laptop and back door stickers. While the task might seem simple the method for each was very different. The purpose of the laptop sticker was to get the K in KISI to light up over the apple logo on a MacBook. As a simple way to promote KISI is by getting existing customers involved who already believe in the product.  While after many, many printouts, I finally got the right positioning and size of the K.

Afterwards, I decided to focus on the Back door sticker. The purpose of this sticker was to help ease users out of the door with a little KISI reminder. Similar to the initial door sticker. My supervisor gave  me a few ideas, and I came up with some as well. After illustrating many different versions  with the help of the noun project, a site for vector icons, we realized that the concept  for most didn’t work.  It often takes many trials and errors to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes with design something might look great, but if it doesn’t fulfill the intended purpose it isn’t useful. The beauty of design especially graphic design is that saving work that may not be used at the moment can in turn be useful later on.

I am beginning to see design through the eyes of clients and consumers, and not only as a designer. This is an important part, if not the most important part of being a Graphic Designer. I use to have so much pride in my work that I was often taken back by criticism and repetitive revisions. However editing is an essential part of design and makes the design stronger and stronger after each revision.

Fine-tuning is essential and necessary especially when working on projects for others. As a designer you have to have understand that your clients have a vision they want you to bring to life for them. It is not your vision, but you certainly do have a say in what goes into it, and its final outcome. We provide influence on the design, as well as principals that some of our future clients/customers don’t utilize, or are unaware of.

I now realize how important prompting questions are. It helps fine tune concepts and ideas so not much time is wasted going in the wrong direction on a project. Although I made 12 specs for my supervisor to choose from he only chose one to use. From that point I still had some alterations. Although it wasn’t a problem, I know that we could have saved some time and came across a final window sticker a lot sooner.

These past few projects have allowed my supervisor to see what I am capable of, and more importantly how I follow instructions. As the weeks go by I challenge myself to create materials in ways I have never done before. I feel that this internship is great practice for a future freelancer. I’m often asked to do logos and business cards, and tee shirt designs, and I feel that I am ready as a designer to begin to capitalize on that venture and provide some great graphics for my own clients.

This week was off to a great start; the manual was finally finalized and looks great. I feel that I have accomplished a great design, by utilizing a simple layout and incorporating text that adhered to the brands esthetic. This project helped to show my capabilities and flexibility when it comes to certain projects.

With that being said I was excited to being a new project this week. The window sticker was something a little more fun. I initially wanted to stick with the same essence of simplicity that was displayed in the manual. I began by making a few samples for my supervisor to review as I researched sticker-printing companies. As A designer I understand the importance of working on a project in reverse, but since I already knew the dimensions needed, I felt the need to backtrack a little while my supervisor reviewed about a dozen samples. This allowed me time to see which company offered the best deal, as well as the best quality print. As I finished that up, my supervisor built upon one of the concepts I showed him, and we were able to quickly alter the design to meet his brands standard. We ended with a sticker that displaying the empire state building and incorporated the KISI “K” into the buildings structure. Keeping it simple and coinciding with the brands overall message, the sticker says “The New York way to access. It is very simple and innovative which represents their product in a great way.

I find typography to be one of my weaker areas as a designer. And being that this project relies heavily on readability, I felt the need to take my time with it. This is the part of the manual I found the most difficult. Due to revisions, I often had to make adjustments to the layout. Trying to fit 20 instructions on a horizontal brochure was a little more difficult than I thought.

As I approach the end of this project, I see that it has forced me to rely heavily on Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. The challenges certainly helped me to discover new functions, and how to utilize certain tools the correct way. This has been a true learning experience. I feel that I am learning more as a designer, than I did at internships I had in the past.

As we approach the final stages of revisions, my supervisor and his partner gave me a few new projects to get started on. One being a mockup for the new website, and the other being a window sticker to be put on clients doors in order to bring awareness to KISI at their respected offices. While I’ve never done a mockup before, I didn’t find it difficult to accomplish, and was able to complete that in a couple days as I steadily worked on revisions for the manual. The mockup showed a simpler, user-friendlier layout to allow KISI’s clients to be able to utilize more of the functions and tools they provide to make access easier. With that being said, the sticker will be one of my top priorities next week.