Winnie Lee

To be a graphic designer, you need to be patient. In the real world, you are going to meet a lot of people who don’t think like you, people who are not involved or don’t know at all about design aesthetics. That’s what this internship experience taught me about to use it in my future career.

One example is the project I did for a company called “Faces & Names NYC Lounge”. I worked along with Denisse, who is one of the social media managers from Clickdaily. She supervised and explained to me what the client wanted to have. Doing a graphic design work for a client takes a process consisting of communication back and forth, sketches, design samples, design corrections, etc. I feel that Faces & Names made me feel a bit tired since they were very undecided and wanted to change a lot of things constantly.

My responsibility was to create a menu insert, a smaller insert, and a poster. All these designs were created to promote the company’s weekend party events. One thing I noticed is that they did not give us what to put as body copy at the beginning. However; I though I could make it up and started to make lot of samples for them, so they can have different design choices.

I sent the design samples to them through email. After some time, they told me they liked one of them, but they also wanted to take out some text. I did all the corrections, and I finished the selected design in all different format and size specifications. The struggle came when they asked to remove more text and change completely the background. I did not understand why they never said it at first. At that moment I felt that I wasted a lot of time. Besides the text, they wanted to show a photo of their backroom because that is what they wanted to promote to their clients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I changed the background twice, and they did not like both of them. They ended up providing me with a photo that they chose. However; the photo was not very good to use since it was too busy and it disturbed with the text of the design. Other ideas did not come to my mind until Julio helped to put a blurry effect to the background photo in Photoshop. After that, I made the final changes and sent it again to them hoping they would like it. They finally love the final product and I am so glad for it!

If I would have to choose a role model or a mentor from Clickdaily, his name would be Julio Li. He is a very passionate, driven, skillful and creative individual.

He is the head of the Graphic Design department at the company. He always treat everybody equally with courtesy and respect. He does not only teach new things to his interns, but also give feedback to whoever needs help from the social media and photography department.

In terms of punctuality, he never comes late to work. When there is a delay issue, he always make sure to notify his intern that he is going to be late that day. Most of the time he has had this problem, he sends me a message about what I am going to do that day. This is something I like very much since I can see that he is aware and make sure I do not spend time not knowing what to do If I come to work earlier that him.

Although he works full time without receiving any benefits or funds from the government, he is very generous with his interns. He would be open to provide and give a lunch time experience to us for free. I cannot be more thankful to what he has done for me and the rest of the people who has interned there.

I have learned a lot of things from him. He always motivates me to do always a good job and also inspire me everyday to take risks of any life opportunity. He is an excellent mentor and role model as well.

 

Since the beginning of my internship, I have made a lot of effort to show my knowledge about design, strengthen my abilities, and also improve my weaknesses.

I think that my attitude toward supervision is very good. I always listen to what my supervisor says, and it is my responsibility to give answers in a good manner. We always talk about the week’s agenda, and I ask questions to him whenever I do not understand something from the project or when I need help in anything. My relationship to staff is very good too. There has not been any serious discussion or a fight between each other. When it comes to giving feedback, I am always present to provide what I think about the project in terms of design layout, colors, format, etc.

Another important point to evaluate myself is about my preparation as an intern. I am very confident to say that most of the time I am prepared and I know what I have to do for each of the two days of internship I have each week. As far as I heard from Julio (My supervisor) before, he said that I am one of the interns that have been more independent. In other words, he told me that he appreciates the fact that he never have to tell me what to do all the time. I think he prefers mostly an intern that is able to know all his work duties, and I think I am a good fit at it.

Last point I want to mention is about meeting deadlines. I think my skill to meet deadlines have been perfect. I always try my best to finish the project before the client need it. For instance, I have been working with a place called “Faces & Names Lounge”. With this company, I have been able to create their menu, a Halloween promotional material (this includes a menu insert, table insert, and poster), weekend’s events promotion materials, and lastly a poster promoting the NYC Marathon coming up this November 5th. So far, I have not encountered any bad experience with them related to how long they have to wait for the final product.

I feel that my work as graphic designer at Clickdaily has been excellent. I always share my feedback and communicate effectively with my supervisor and the rest of the staff as well. Furthermore, I think I have created very good design work for them since they always rely on the knowledge in my area of expertise.

Hope all this learning experience can help me to hopefully get another internship or a full time permanent job in the future!

There are many examples where I have collaborated with the staff at Clickdaily. At some moments, between my supervisor, the photography staff, and I share feedback each other either about design projects going on, what photos should be good for use, if the photo editing is correct, etc. We always learned and try to pick the best design possible.

During the beginning of my internship, I had the opportunity to go to my first photo shoot at a restaurant called “Trattoria Bianca”. My supervisor, one of the photographers (Vlad) and I went together to have a photo shoot experience. We first looked at the menu, and picked the best dishes that it may look nice and beautiful for a photo. After deciding our choices, we waited like 20 minutes for the food to be ready. When everything was ready, Vlad started taking a lot of pictures in different angles and backgrounds. Julio was there to check and help a bit while I was helping Vlad to give him any great ideas in order to get a good photo. After we took photo of all the dishes, we got lucky to eat all the dishes we ordered. I was surprised the owner/manager of the restaurant let us eat all! It was fun!

This is not the only collaborative work I did with the staff at Clickdaily. On October 30th, I went to another photo shoot at a restaurant called “Resette”. This time I went with one of the social media managers (Samantha), a photographer (Barry), and me. At first I thought we were not going to be able as there was the health department inspecting the restaurant at that time. One of the managers told us if we could wait like half hour until the issue was solved. In the meantime, she treated us with coffee, some bread, and fried calamari. After the issue was solved, we did the same thing as the last time photo shoot experience. We decided for the best plates, waited for the food to be ready, and take many interesting pictures in different angles. This time, we could not have the opportunity to eat the food because of the manager’s decision.    I think all these collaborative projects are successful because I was able to improve my communication skills with the staff, make team work progress, and most important, strengthen my photography skills.

While working at Clickdaily, INC. , I have learned about what it really takes to be a graphic designer out there in the real world. Since I begin this internship, I have learned to meet deadlines. Unlike in college, professors are not really stressed and put you into constant pressure to give the final project in the due date. When you work with clients outside, you really feel the adrenaline to give the final product on time because you do not want to loose them or give a bad impression.

Besides learning more about how to use the software every day, I have learned how to speak professionally to my coworkers and clients through email. I am always respectful to them and help them in whatever they need.

Something I have learned regarding the industry and the economy of the business is about price charges. Being an amateur graphic designer or even better a freelance graphic designer with not so much experience, you are not sure about what price to charge to your client at first. I learned that when you are a graphic designer, you have to understand about the value that your design has, and the process it takes to do a really good design work that follows the right concept with the correct design rules.

The prices of a graphic design work is based on the process you take to come up with a final product. You are not only charging the actual product, but your time, your knowledge, your creativity, your effort, and especially the revisions to fortunately satisfy your client. Now that I was able to see the price list of the company’s services, I have a suggestion about what to charge when I get to do freelance work.

 

If you become an intern at Clickdaily, INC. you will have an enjoyable work environment. This company is very adaptable in all aspects. They are always aware if you need help with something, and your supervisor is always willing to give you a very flexible schedule. You, as an intern has the opportunity to decide which days and hours to come to work. He understands that you are a full time student and you have school responsibilities besides working at the place. The attire at the company would be seen as more informal. There is not a really strict dress code at the company. Everybody can wear what they like. However; I always think that you must wear something casual, something along between formal and informal. A nice pair of dark color jeans or dress pants, and button up shirt would be a good outfit.

The work office is small, it is not that big. However; it is organized. When you first enter, you will see a small room on your right side which belongs to the sales and marketing department. Outside of that, there is a open work area with three big desktop tables with computers and a meeting table in the center. Along with these workstations, you will have access to unisex restroom and a small coffee/snack area. My typical employee workday will be getting there Mondays and Tuesdays. Each day from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. My supervisor would introduce me to the new project for the week, and then be ready to start. Around 12:30 pm or 1/1:30 pm both my supervisor and I decide if we are ready to go to have lunch and also what to eat that day. He always invites his interns to have a great lunch time savoring new food of any type. Then, the rest of the afternoon is basically keep going with projects, asking help if needed, etc. Then at 6:00 pm it is my time to say say goodbye to all of them and wish them a nice rest of the week!

Sales & Marketing Department

Office open area (Social Media department and Graphic design department)

"Where I work every day"

I am a graphic design intern at Clickdaily, INC. My supervisor is Julio Li, who is the head of the Graphic Design Department of the company. I was able to know this company thanks to a good friend. One day, he was hanging out with Julio. Then, he decided to show my Instagram portfolio to him. Fortunately, Julio really liked my work and he told my friend to tell me that I would be a good candidate to intern at the company. During my summertime, I was thinking to become part of the Service Corps and get an internship there. However; I emailed the company in June because I was just curious about the internship position. Julio and I talked to each other through email back and forth, and we ended up setting an in-person interview for June 12th at 11:30 am.

When I get to the place, Julio introduced himself and took me to the meeting table. He took a copy of my resume, and then he started asking me some questions. He basically just asked me about my technical skills, and the past work experience I have. We discussed about the responsibilities I would have to take if I would be selected, and the goals I would like to achieve in my future career. At the end of the interview, we shook hands and hoped to keep in touch.

I was undecided in which internship to take this semester. My decision was debated between going for Service Corps program and this company. That was until the beginning of August when I took the final decision to join this interesting company. I started working at Clickdaily from August 28th until November 20th. During that period of time, my routine was to have such a productive day every Monday and Tuesday from 11:00am to 6:00 pm creating and sharing my design knowledge in different projects for the company.

I believe everybody who start a new job or a new internship, get a little nervous on the first day. I was feeling the same too. I was scheduled to be there at 10:00 am. I made sure to organize my things and plan my outfit accordingly the night before, so I don’t get in a rush the next morning. I remember I put thousand of alarms to wake up on time. To be honest, I am not a morning person. For me, it is a little bit difficult to wake up early. However; I feel whenever a very important day comes, waking up earlier is not a struggle anymore.

The great day came, and I prepared myself a very good breakfast to get energy and be active during the whole day. I got ready, packed my things, and headed out to take the train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. It was a nice Summer day! I finally got to my place around 9:30 am. It was good that I came a little earlier, so in case something would happen. When I was walking to the place, I noticed one of the photographers (Vlad) who was walking to there too. I said Hi to him, and he kindly took me to the office. He asked me to sit down and wait since Julio (my manager) still was not in the office.

When Julio came, he introduced me to the photographers (Vlad & Barry) and the rest of the staff. He started having a friendly conversation with me, so I get more confident and fortunately come out of my shell. He also gave me a summary about my tasks. We started the day doing business card samples for a beverages company called “D and S Beverages” and then some social media posts for the same company. I struggled a little bit with the making of it because I was using Photoshop. I never make business cards in another program besides InDesign, so to play with text and layout was a bit difficult at first. Nonetheless; Julio helped me with it later.My first day at Clickdaily was short. It was from 10:00 am to around 4:30 pm. Julio had to leave since he had a meeting at 2:30 pm. He left me with the photographers to finish the rest of the work. When I was done, I said bye to everybody who was there and left the place.

I feel very relaxed during my first day. Not pressure or stress at all.

The founder and CEO of Clickdaily is Ghislain de Noue. Since he grew up in a family wine business in Burgundy, France, he felt exposed to the hospitality and service industry in great depth. He study Economics in the Université Panthéon Assas, and then received a Master in Business and Administration from the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Ghislain decided to move to New York in 2003, and he started working as a distributor for restaurant POS systems. He used to sell the only software that instantly took orders on tablets in the US before ipads and other service apps came along. When the market started to grow with iPads and other Apps selling their own POS services for a fraction of the price, he felt that he needed to think about another idea of selling.

In 2008, he had big opportunities in the restaurant industry to utilize social media profitably and that is when in 2015, Clickdaily started to revolutionize the hospitality industry from that year until now.

 

 

During this semester, I worked for a private company called “Clickdaily, INC”. It was founded in 2015 and it is headquartered in Midtown New York, NY. At this company, there are about 15 employees spread among the departments of marketing & sales, graphic and web design, and social media management. Clickdaily describes itself as a social media marketing and branding agency. Its main goal is promote the brand of small to medium sized businesses especially located in the hospitality industry through social media management and other great services such as graphic/web design, photography, email marketing, social media advertising, etc.

I took part of the graphic design team at the company. My supervisor was Julio Li, who is the head of the graphic/ web design department and also the internship manager. Most of the time at Clickdaily, I worked and collaborated a lot with him doing a lot of projects such business cards, menus, ads, web banners, among other interesting design related work.