Today I received a few emails from both of my supervisors. They are beginning to provide all the things i requested in the list I emailed them. They sent me the logo, but not the right file type. So I called them to let them know I specially need the original Adobe Illustrator file,svg file, or a vector type of file. They also started sending some content like some logos of their sponsors, and info for an upcoming event they want me to design a flyer for. I’m waiting for some more content so I can start the mock ups as soon as possible. For now I am designing wire frames for myself but I would like to meet with the board soon so we can discuss the main pages of the site.

I got an email two days ago from my supervisors requesting we have a board meeting using a desktop sharing program. They wanted to further discuss plans for the website since our last meeting. Since I had some time before the online meeting I created a presentation in InDesign using desktop and mobile screen shots of the PCC website. I know the board isn’t as knowledgeable as me in web design and wouldn’t understand some of the terms I would be using. So before starting the presentation using my PDF presentation I explained to them how a site is broken into three parts, a header,content, and footer and what goes in them.

I had the home page desktop and mobile screen shot side by side for comparison of consistency in design. I marked up the presentation with little notes so they would know what I’m talking about. I started with the header, first of all the logo has a misspelling. Then I show them how the mobile navigation is completely different in design from the desktop navigation. I also showed them how the designer carelessly had duplicated content and links on the home page. I broke down the whole home page so they could understand why things don’t work visually. For example they have a carousel on the home page that has 3 images of the city, making their site look like a Manhattan realty site instead of a postal company.

I also talked about the mobile navigation and how poorly designed it was, I showed them a good example of a mobile navigation that would suite their site. In the final part of the presentation, I presented their companies big brother’s website USPS.com. I explained to them that the USPS website’s design is something we can use as a reference. I explained to them its design/functions aren’t up to date and 100 percent perfect but its still a good example because it is the company the PCC works with. I show them whats good and bad, and the whys of all their placement of certain things.

They were all very pleased and thankful with the presentation, I felt really good I could translate all this web tech chit chat to people who don’t have a clue about it. I feel I really made an impact on how they look at their site and how it works. I later on got an email from my supervisor with a link of another PCC site I should look at as a reference. I’m glad she got the idea and I feel like we are going to make a lot of progress now.

Today I went into the office to have a meeting with the board. They were very concerned with the site and how its actually helping the company. Our lack of communication before the meeting delayed anything major getting done. Since I been at the internship I’ve been reporting to two supervisors who have to get okays from their superiors most of the time before I make any major changes to the site. I’ve told them the site has a lot of issues before but they weren’t really passing the message along to their superiors I guess.

Finally I had my first sit down with all the board members to actually discuss my jobs tasks and how I can help them. I told them the same thing I’ve been telling my supervisors, the site is poorly designed. Visiting the site as a web designer I can clearly tell no effort was put into their site to make it unique and distinguish itself. I explained to them some of the careless things their hired web designer has done, and how we could go about improving it. Some content on the website that they have featured they aren’t really sure if they even wanted it up. Basically their web designer didn’t ask them what they wanted but just went ahead and used their old content off their old website.

I also discussed the useless member system they have on the site which conflicts with the WordPress admin system. I told them how it has no features or functions at all, and there is no point of having it up at all.

On the website note, they told me they are going to work on getting a new budget for a new site. So during this time I will be working with them to develop content and mock ups.

The last thing I presented to the board was all three designs of my newsletter covers, they liked all of them but especially the third one. So I told them to provide me with more content that they would liked featured and I will continue to come up with more designs and more pages. I also requested they provide me with all graphics for their company such as vector logos ,product pictures, etc. Anything I can use to develop the website and newsletters. So we agreed at the end of the meeting that I will email them with a list of everything I need to get started.

I have been working on different concepts for newsletter covers, the PCC haven’t provided me with much content, or any idea of what they exactly want. So I took the initiative to come up with different covers each with different goals. One design features their upcoming events as the main feature, and a little bit about the company. The second cover’s design highlights the benefits of becoming a member of the PCC, and also includes a small about section. The third cover design includes all 3 aspects but the main focus is the upcoming events because they want more people in attendance at their meetings. I presented the newsletter cover designs to my supervisors and they really liked the design of the third one, so I will continue to create different versions of this design to present to them again.

The Greater New York Postal Consumer Council (PCC) website had a few errors on the back end that needed to get taken care of. I contacted Parker Web (the web design company PCC hired) about one the problems that needs to be resolved. A week later they sent me a email asking if I fixed the problem, when the whole point of me contacting them was for them to fix it. Since its a back end issue and I didn’t create the site I wouldn’t try to alter any coding or else I might mess something up I’m not aware of. The problem was the plugin for the photo gallery, it had a back end problem which wouldn’t allow anyone to upload image galleries via Word Press. Parker Web was uploading images via FTP totally ignoring the problem so I had to let them know that wasn’t very professional. Also they had a link to their website in the footer of the PCC website, basically free advertising. I asked the PCC board if they approved and they said no, so I had Parker Web also remove their link from the footer.

During my second week at GNYPCC, we had another client meeting about designing mail pieces.  I didn’t participate, I just took pictures of the event and ate pizza for lunch. After that we went back to the office, and Wai had a few things for me to update on the site, nothing major. On the events page a few things needed to be reworded, and a PDF flyer needed to be posted in an event. Also I had to upload photos to the photo gallery from the last event and this one and update their members list. They don’t have a lot of work for me to do, I am their first intern so they are finding stuff for me to do and I’m helping them do so. I hope to design newsletters or something soon, so I can add it to my portfolio.

I started interning for the Greater New York Postal Consumer Council, located at 380 33rd St. It is a subsidiary of the USPS. The mission of the GNYPCC is to help business mailers who send out large bulks of mail save money and time. The board at the GNYPCC are older and aren’t familiar with the latest trends in technology. They want me to manage their website and update its content daily. Also they want me to communicate with their web developer who they hired to design the site, so I can help improve it by telling the web developer what needs to be changed.

On my first day before my interview, they invited me to a client meeting so I could observe and get to know the company a bit. During the meeting I met business owners and people of all types, from Con Ed, from the United Nations, to a start up print press from the Bronx.

My boss Michael is pretty cool, he told me to network with his clients so I can find more work and make connections. I basically already had the position before I got there, but they wanted to meet me. So the interview included Michael, and four other people from the board, and of course myself. One of the board members graduated from the same High School as me, it was funny because he approached me and asked if I went to John Adams, and he was pretty excited we were both alumni.

For the rest of the day I was with Wai Chow and Migdalia Cabrera, who are basically my supervisors. I answered any questions Wai and Migdalia had about the website because they needed things to be explained. They told me when they told the web developer to do things, they would do it their own way and not the way they asked. So I will be their translator for the web site. We had a conference call with their web developer Parker Webb, I found out the info I needed such as if the website was designed using Word Press, and if Google Analytics was set up. I then had Parker Webb make me an account for Word Press and Google Analytics ,so I would have access to update the site.

I had a pretty good first day.