1) One of the first things I remember about my internship related to ethics guidelines is the conversation that my supervisor had with us in the first week we worked there. He made sure to establish that though we aren’t going to be working on designs all the time in this internship, we are expected to make sure that we don’t freely take the work of others who have worked on banners and invitations already. While working on one of the actual designs itself, it had never occurred to me some of the implications of my work could be. Because the designs were meant to be advertising the company’s own events and workshops, not so much a different client’s, usage of logos wasn’t specifically an issue. What was a main point of focus from an ethical standpoint was how closely our design compares to previous designs from other designers that created posters. Had we gotten influence from another person’s work? This is very closely tied to the idea of copyright, and whether we were infringing upon that. I can say that at no point was I looking to other’s works while making my designs. Rather, I took creative concepts that I know I worked on previous projects in class and looked to apply them to what I was doing. This referred to mostly ideas that I learned from professors that taught me in college in my classes.  I can also say that I did not have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

2) Because my internship was not geared towards creating designs for clients, but rather for the company itself, it did not occur to me so much of what I may or may not be allowed to use regarding copyright. I didn’t need to use photographs of something not given by my company, I didn’t need to worry myself over looking at other’s works. Rather, I am supposed to focus on what I need to do to get the information of a festival out in a presentable and appealing manner. However, after reading the assigned readings on business and ethics for designers, I can say that I should have been and should be more careful now. Just because I did not have to worry, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t. Though I was confident that everything I did was my own work, I still did not have the necessary agency to keep my work from being mine and not in the likeness of someone else’s.

Regarding the copyright case, my first thought was whether or not I knew the design myself, and after a quick google search, I realized I did. I saw that this is in fact a well-known work, and it apparently has been tried and shown that this is copyright infringement. It seemed all he did was take an established photo and edit the colors. Though this was definitely a powerful design, the question comes in how much of that is because of the original photo and not his design work. This shows me how easy it is for us to not adhere to proper copyright procedure. When in doubt, credit the original seems to be a goof rule of thumb.

It’s finally almost here, after working really hard with everyone, organizing the materials, joggling back and forth with people and projects. I feel really good that I’ve taken this internship. Throughout this semester, I’ve never thought I would experience such hard work nor would I experience an actual worksite that deals with many hardships, partnership, and being a leader. This job/internship has taught me a lot, and I have a lot more coming through, it’s not the end yet.

Things have been pretty heated at the office, due to the upcoming events and festival. It’s been a little tough on me since I have to joggle everything that’s going on; school, work, internship, home, etc. But it’s a good thing I’ve experienced this because, many people go through this a lot, where for so long I had it easy. It’s always good to experience time management that’s the most important thing in everyone’s life.

In my internship we’ve been really busy with all the upcoming events, especially the main event World Voices Festival. I’ve met some important people that are included into the festival. She even included me in doing the financial part of the work. Knowing when or where the flight they booked is taken, how much their hotel booking is coast, etc. This was a difficult task because I was never given this opportunity to do something other than something related to my major. I have some background knowledge because I work in JFK, an agent at the counters.

After two months, the office held an office party and celebrated the major accomplishment of the literature reading. People served snacks and drinks and there was music being played for about an hour or so before everyone went back to work. Because the turnout for the reading was so popular, the authors of the books and the people in Pen America were enjoying themselves. I stayed around with many of the other interns for most of it, and spoke about some of the things we were asked to do.

I was asked to design a postcard for Pen America. On it, I included the logo of the company, and it had information of an event that Pen America was hosting. I would say that my design wasn’t very creative. It was simple and not too memorable, and my supervisor ended up not approving of it.

In one project, I was tasked to work on a banner for a literary reading a month and a half into the internship. I worked with two other fellow intens, and we worked on making a design that was appealing and had all the information required, such as the author’s name, the book, and the venue. We made a group chat and worked on it. We would fire off ideas and asked for approval from the actual marketing designers that we had to report to. We didn’t actually design the banner, but one of ur ideas did make the cut. We made the input of having the silhouette in the book cover of the book that was going to be read on the banner.

I work under Nahian Ayes, who works as the World Voices Festival General Manager. I work as an intern to prepare for the World Voices Festival, which is a literary festival meant to gather many different writers from different nationalities to discuss the way the world is changing and the direction that the field of literature is heading in. I wanted to work in this department because I felt that by getting experience in preparing for a festival, I would get experience in advertising and designing for the festival. I first caught interest in this company through CUNY Cultural Corps. At one of the Cultural Corps worksite meetings, I met with one their representatives where I handed them my resume and went on to explain about myself. They asked me what was my personal interest in this internship, what do I hope to do, and how can my experiences help them as a company.