Category Archives: Assignments

Week 14 Assignment: Guest Speaker – James Levine

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Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.  (Neil Gaiman)

On one of the Internship classes, we had a guest speaker James Levine. I am always interested in meeting people who have achieved something in life as well as doing the job they love. I find such meetings very informative and useful as they give an insight at the way life can be and that we not always in charge of what happens to us but we are in charge of what we make happen.

During the lecture by James Levine, i learned that the dream of his life was to be a Photographer, which he became thanks to hard work and perseverance. He met with many other great people working for and owning major companies during photography career. I also learned that due to the unfortunate event of loosing clear vision he could not longer continue in the Photography field. So he then put all of his will and motivation into finding a new dream job of career coach. (Here is a link to his career coaching website http://jobsearchtherapy.com/ ). Exactly this fact had the biggest influence on me and that is why i used a quotes by Neil Gaiman to say that “…sometimes when you fall, you fly”, meaning that not all the downfalls break you,  sometimes when incident happens, you simply find a new way to be happy again. To me personally this means that no matter what happens to you in life, you are able to find new meaning and interpretation of the new given situation, the most important lesson is – never give up.

The rest of the lecture was information on how to do the job search in a proper and effective way, how to craft your resume and cover letter, how to approach the interviewer and many other useful tips. Also I wanted to mention that towards the end of the class, there was information given on the major advertising companies by James as well as information on many art and design organizations given by Professor Goetz.

During this class, I received a new insight at the creative field of design and advertising, as well as many practical advises about finding a dream job, and also on learning to reconsider your life and your goals and to never give up to matter what life brings you. Be courageous and always move forward!

(Photo source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lucky-me-james-levin )

Thank you

Week 11 Assignment: Hearst Visit

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Hello,

I would like to share my personal impression from the visit of Hearst. Before the class trip, I researched Hearst company and was impressed with all the magazines that they publish. Also I found a lot of interesting information of their website. (http://www.hearst.com)

As I arrived to the destination, I was shocked by the huge building of the Hearst Publisher Company. Lower floor of the building stayed the same from the original building of previous century. 32 floors with new magazine on each floor- seemed to me like a great organization of the space. We went to 11th floor – the place of the production team. We were invited to the conference room where Adam and Phillis explained us the process of arranging the ready magazine pages into a final ready-to-print magazine version. For me, it was very exciting to learn about this process, and how it was done before computers with easy digital abilities. I enjoyed a lot the information I received during this presentation.

Later on, we went to the image editing room, which was dark with neutral grey walls and 5K professional lamps for the daylight effect to proof the colors of printed pages. The presenter in this room showed us how raw images are edited, and so how the editorial work is done in the company. The next was room of final soft and hard magazine proof. I think this room is the most important, since from here the magazine is going to the printer and so the very final version is determined. Michael Patrissi seemed very knowledgeable about the printing proof process and I learned new information.

Also, I have to mention our guide, Chuck, who was very friendly and welcoming and answered all the questions that we had for him. I am very grateful to visit such a big company and take a glance inside the process of creation of many popular glossy magazines, like Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar. I learned a lot of new things which I did not know before. It was a great tour and I am very happy I joined it!

Thank you

Week 7 Assignment – Digital Storefront

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Digital Storefront (electronic storefront, cyber storefront, e-storefront, online storefront, virtual storefront) is an e-commerce solution for merchants who want to host a website that offers goods and/or services for sale, advertises their products or services and for which consumer transactions are generated online; and which the customers or ‘window shoppers’ can visit at any time and from anywhere. It includes: Product display, online ordering software, inventory management applications, billing and online payment system, and payment processing software, Web analytics, secure socket layer (SSL) security, Web2Print, etc.

Web2print storefront: is a digital solution provided by web2print companies for people who want to perform printing business for companies and businesses. It allows to create and sell stationary, promotional printing (marketing elements), print on clothing, print on mugs etc. Here is a video I found which helps to understand what is web2print storefront https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJW1X_Uk7u0

  1. Overview of the application.

One example of the storefront Application offering Web2Print solution is Webtools4print. They offer services like website building, Ecommerce implementation, Designing tool as well as customized personalized “storefront” for each unique visitor. 2. Competitors in this space:

In USA similar companies are: Red-Tie, PrintSites, efi, Design’N’Buy, MyPrintCloud, Web2print Experts, Rocket Print Software, OnPrintShop, Propago, Gelato, PageFlex, Pixopa, Print Science, Pixl Park, Avanti Systems, B2CPrint, PrintingForLess.

3. How would it be used and applied to a designers job function.

In my opinion, there is a lot of opportunity for the designer’s skills implementation in Storefront tool. This includes coding websites, designing appearance of the e-Commerce (online store), designing templates for Web2Print solutions.

Thank you

Week 4 Assignment – Guest Speaker (Zach Bokuniewicz)

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Hello, visitor.

I would like to share my impression from the presentation by Zach. It was very valuable information for me in terms of the internship and job search, dream job hunt and the progression from the current place to the place-to-be.

I found useful advice on branding yourself, asking questions during the interview and also sending a “Thank you letter” after the interview. Steps that everyone should constantly do include improving portfolio and connecting with people from your desired industry. I feel like the more “right” people you know the faster they might lead you to the place where you want to be.

Screenshot from Zach’s presentation

Yet one very important note from Zach, personally for me, was  what kind of company is it better to choose. He mentioned Startups, Small Business and Corporations, describing both pros and cons for each of them.

In conclusion, I would add, that this short interview by Zach was very informative, interesting and inspiring for me, since it made me realize that no matter where you are at the given point, there is always room for development and self-growth and you should never stop improving your work and connect with other inspiring people.

Thank you

Internship Interview (week 2 assignment)

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Hello.

I would like to share my experience of Interview for the Internship that I have recently had.

In the beginning I have searched through many companies that were looking for a web designer. And to those that have caught my interest, I sent out my resume and portfolio. Yet I did not have a feeling that I found some company that I would really want to spend my time on.

Then I decided to change my approach and search by my skills and activities that I liked the most. This way I found some galleries looking for Graphic Designers and one art studio looking for Web Developer Intern. To my surprise, I received a reply from the Art Studio inviting me for the interview.

A week later, I came to the interview. I must mention that I was very excited about this specific internship position from the minute I entered the studio. There were many paintings of different sizes, finished and in progress. Also numerous, amazingly well done sculptures resembling Greek and Roman statues at the studio. I loved the space from the first glance and realized that I want to have internship exactly here.

Once I met the artist, he explained that they are working on the website for the studio and need intern to help the main Wed Designer with the web developing process. Also, artist would need graphic design work, like Photoshop editing and collage creation, as well as some work in InDesign. I said right away that I love the studio and started to explain about the kind of work i did before. I was asked to do some Photoshop image manipulations as well as to read some code. I did the required tasks. Next, I was asked questions to say few words about myself and why would I want to work there. I shared my passion for art and said that I really hope to be chosen to be an intern at this studio.

After another week, I received a call saying that I was accepted for the position. I was very excited because this was the place that I really would want to work at and practice my web design skills as well as photography related tasks. I am very lucky to start my internship in such a creative atmosphere.