Entry 17

On my first day, I was terrified of appearing unknowledgeable and inadequate to Victor and the other designers, so I just took direction and avoided asking any questions that didn’t directly affect my work. However, after spending time in the office and getting into the groove of things, I realized that internships are supposed to be a learning experience, so nobody expected me to know everything. I started asking more questions and engaging in discussions related to the things I would be confused or concerned about, and I was able to pick up knowledge that I never would have been able to come across without asking any questions. Just the simple act of asking a question opened up the door to not only a better understanding of the work I was doing, but also the perspectives of people that come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences that lead them to this point. I initially didn’t know how to interact with the other designers in the office or even the other intern, so the first day or two I kept mostly to myself. After another day at work passed, however, I reached out to my co-intern & began keeping regular contact with him. Connecting and being able to discuss our assignments helped me feel less alone, and in retrospect it was one of the best decisions I made during my internship. Connecting with him was a great way to help me stay on track in both my job and in my academics, and I believe that I gained a true friend out of the whole experience.

Entry 16

Today was the day of employee reviews, and I was honestly super nervous, mainly because I have pretty much been at least 15 minutes late every day. However it’s went pretty smoothly as he only subtly touched on my tardiness, and mostly had good things to say (pretty much said he’s going to copy and paste for the class review as well) he also had given me a new payment offer as I continue my part time employment, but with the promise of an increase once I hit the full time mark. Overall victor along with Jordan presented a very comfortable atmosphere in the conference room, and asked me if I had any questions or concerns to help improve the system here. I did express some of my concerns with the lack of communication that sometimes occurs between the designer and sales rep, and she has promised to address the situation and find a way to enforce reps to be more aware of their emails. Otherwise I have been very happy with my experience here, the bonds i have developed and the experience i have received, I plan on staying here for at least 2-3 years and it seems they have their arms open. 

Entry 15

With employee reviews coming up soon, victor brought to our attention some flow charts that manage and track our progress as we complete orders based on quantity, and volume of production. He also showed the rates of each designers completion and turn around time for each design that is appointed them, since there is a new younger work force being implemented this year as opposed to last year, there shows to be a 5% increase in productivity. There were some instances where my work orders were being completed after the due date, however upon further inspection, we concluded this was because of certain reps unable to return feedback in time, or even completely ghosting important emails that were sent to them. At this point he was able to point out to me another new rule that is being implemented, where if a rep does not respond within 72 hours of final proof email, we should go ahead and print. Otherwise it was just a general overview of how we will be tracked and the points that will be touched during the employee reviews.

Entry 14

Since the passing of my grandfather, it’s been hard for my family to keep up with payments as efficiently as we used to since there is one less source of income. I brought up the issue with victor, which he responded with more hours that go around the general rulings of part time employment, where the limit is 20 Hours a week, he was able to finesse me into up to 30 hours. He also notified me that there will be a wage increase no matter what coming up next month. He also highlighted some key benefits that will be available once I begin full time employment, as well as a range I should expect to hopefully help out. He was Also clear to iterate that ultimately the offer I receive will be up to his supervisor who is in charge of employee pay. 

Entry 13

Today there is an event in midtown known as cultivating craft, here it is basically like a convention of different craft beers, that are distributed by us. The event is in partnership with our distribution company, as well as a Craft beer review website, who’s father company is the same family Company that our department is under. For this event, yesterday me and some others were printing and cutting out vinyl lettering and graphics that need to be placed today at the event. However, since I had class in the morning, I was unable to attend the event, where everyone else was already on the premise tasting their free samples and putting up signs. Victor said that he trusted me enough to manage the print shop while they were away, but since it was slow and all the reps are at the event, I shouldn’t have a lot on my plate. And he was right, I’ve just been working on som simple designs that were assigned to me via the POS app. However the fact that victor has embedded this much responsibility within me after only being here for a few months made me feel very proud of my work progress.

Entry 12

Since thanksgiving is right around the corner, we have been printing several fall themed posters and promoting many events that include the serving of food. However earlier this week, there was a legal review, (that luckily only victor had to sit through for 5hours) where they indicated many new Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to creating new orders and what we cant include in the graphics. It was made apparent that we are no longer allowed to advertise any clients personally products, outside of what we distribute for them, unless of course they are billed for it, as then it works as a freelance design order, commissioned by our graphics department, and is billed separately from any graphics that are produced to promote our merchandise. I had no idea we were able to freelance for other companies as a graphic unit, as I thought we were solely doing design work for the beer companies alone. But it turns out that two of my orders actually included information that was not allowed to be in the poster, unless the client would pay for it. Victor was able to help me clarify to the sales reps that submitted these request, where one of them decided to cancel, where the other one was able to get the restaurant to pay for the extra information included in the poster. 

Entry 11

Similar to last week, this week has been slow, giving me the chance to work on projects like my re branding of blink fitness as well as my second publication for a different class. Luckily I had plenty of criticism to work with from my last class review so I did not have to bother victor today. Suddenly right before lunch time, there was a wave of sales reps that kept coming in after each other every 5 minutes, because they urgently needed me to print them tap stickers for the beer tap handles. According to victor it is very unprofessional of sales reps to ask for any request via email or in person, as he likes to be strict with only accepting orders via the VIP order submission app. However he was aware of the slow nature in today’s workflow, so he gave the green light to go ahead and print the urgent requests, as long as the reps would submit a work order, so we can keep track of cost and material use, usually the orders must include any information and attachments required for the design, but since these were urgent, he showed me that I can create one for the reps with only the dimensions and cost without worrying about the information. He also sent me an example text that I should send to any rep trying to sneak in requests through email or person, in a means to say no professionally. 

Entry 10

For most of this week, since Halloween is over, the rush for most posters and prints have been rather slow, with the exception of few requests for billboards here and there. I was able to utilize this opportunity of free time to catch up on some of my senior assignments that are due. My boss said it was okay as long as we don’t get too behind on the order requests and they aren’t print and produced within the given time slot, I should be okay with working on some other projects from time to time. On top of that, he is very skilled in his publication design skills, so he even offered to read over my magazine and give me any helpful criticism. Boy was it a bittersweet moment, upon seeing the first few pages he already noticed some inconsistencies in the typefaces and said “I should punish you by firing you” since I actually used two different serif fonts in my table of contents. I told him I was just playing around and wasn’t set on what time, so he understood for the most part. He was able to give me some helpful criticism and caught plenty of mistakes that would otherwise go unnoticed by even my professor the last time I showed her. 

Entry 9

Today is the Friday before Halloween, but last week they sent out an email notifying the staff in the office of a Halloween night which is today. The email included everyone that works in the same office space as me and included information regarding the event. It was a day to promote dressing up and there will be 5 winners, one for  the funniest costume, scariest, most creative, “nice try” and most likely To go viral. The prizes for each are $25 gift cards to various locations with the best costume being a $50 gift card. I personally have to go to my girlfriends birthday dinner so I couldn’t really get too creative with my costume. So I just wore something sleek and edgy with a plague doctor mask as well as a cane to carry. I didn’t exactly win any of the gift cards, but I’m going to blame it on the fact that they probably just don’t know my name to give me any votes. Even though we had a brief introduction before we ate the food that was ordered from Roberta’s pizzeria (a local favorite). Overall this experience allowed me to get to know the engine behind a large company and become more acquainted with my office neighbors as well as getting to enjoy another free meal. 

Entry 8

Today I was assigned the dubious task of overseeing incoming deliveries. We have different sections for where our materials go. For instance all the equipment for the big printers go in the large cabinets that are located beneath the smaller printers. The first cabinet serves as the base for the first small printer we call OKI 1, which is used for regular paper posters and cards. On this cabinet the top drawer is for the print heads, the second is for the inks and cartridges for all the printers are separated in their sections. The third and fourth drawers contain tabloid (11×17) and tabloid extra (12×18) sized papers in plain and card stock. There are another set of cabinets and identical printer right next to each other where in this second one we use to print on specialty papers such as stickers or pre-scored pages and dies as well as booklets. I’m these drawers we carry said specialty papers in the first two. Where the bottom drawer is home to cleaning supplies as well as setting spray and face masks which we use on certain jobs to make sure they last and hold color quality. The heaviest shipment to bring in were the large rolls of paper that we used in our bigger printers which were about 50 inches tall and pretty heavy.