Xavier Vasquez’s ePortfolio

2A:

Looking back at my past, I have used other people’s work, but mostly in the sense of tracing when I was in middle school or elementary school. I never really used anybody’s work and claimed it as mine because I have too much integrity to do something like that. The only thing I can say is that sometimes I used photos for assignments, but they were mainly there to help me show my point in those assignments. I didn’t always have the time to search for the name of whoever took the photo because the internet is huge and images can appear on many different sources. Also, I had assignments due, so I had more things to worry about than trying to track down who originally took the photo. When practicing drawing, I would sometimes trace the reference I was using to get a better understanding of the shapes and how everything is constructed. Then I would use that as a template and redraw it by hand. This made it easier to learn. I usually didn’t credit anyone for that because it was mainly for personal practice.

2B:

After reading the Fairey case , it shows how blurry the lines between inspiration and copyright really can be. Fairey said that his Obama “Hope” poster was fair use because he had transformed the original Associated Press photo into an artwork in a different style and contained a different message. I can see that point, because artists and graphics designers (like me) do often use existing images as inspiration for new designs. Instead, the biggest problem in the case was that Fairey lied about which photo he used and destroyed documents in an effort to cover it up. That made even more of a problem, taking it into legal, ethical questions rather then a simple debate about fair use. In the end Fairey had to pay a $25,000 fine outcome. This case serves as a reminder that designers need to be upfront about their sources, and need to respect and be aware of what copyright they use because I ain’t paying no fee.

1A:

My internship, Women’s Press Collective (WPC), is an independently funded printing press organization that takes in volunteers. Our main goal is to produce reliable and accurate news and print it. Many of the images we use are created in-house or provided by members of the organization. I am part of the design team, which helps illustrate things like covers or advertisements for the company, and we do receive credit for our work. The design team also helps organize the magazine called Collective Endeavors. In our magazine, we have sponsors who help fund our publication, and in return we place advertisements for them in the magazine. The businesses that sponsor us provide assets for their advertisements. These assets include their logos, phone numbers, headlines, and images. For the most part, we focus on producing news content and printing it. A lot of the articles are written in-house, so we have writers, designers like me, and other team members who help produce the magazine. Everyone who works on the magazine gets credited, and I was credited for helping with the design.

1B:

My memory of my first day at the internship is a little foggy because it was about a month ago, so bear with me. When I was being oriented for my internship, I received a tour of the workplace and an explanation of how everything works and what my responsibilities would be. My supervisor also handed me a form to fill out with my skills, address, phone number, and other information. I believe it was also a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). I asked my supervisor if I could send or post pictures of the work I did, but she told me not to share any of the images we worked on because they were likely protected under the NDA and should not be shown publicly. However, I was told that I could post about the work once the magazine or the project we are working on is released to the public. Honestly, the NDA has not affected my internship very much. In my blog posts, I stay fairly vague about what I am specifically designing. I usually talk about the general tasks I am doing but avoid showing any images of my designs or revealing details about the articles. I think the only time this might affect me is at the end of the semester when I have to create a presentation and show examples of my work. When that time comes, I will likely need to speak with my supervisor to make sure it is okay to show those materials.

_{Photo by NIKON CORPORATION on Unsplash.com}

In my internship, it was basically a “back to basics” kinda feel because for the last 2 years I haven’t really used Adobe Indesign. Like I said in my previous blog post that I am part of the design team section of my internship and we basically use Indesign for the majority of the time. Getting back into the feel of Indesign felt like riding a bike again after some time and it just clicks back with you the more you use it. Another aspect of design I do is illustrate posters or illustrations for their ads or come up with thumbnails for their next posters. I edit photo’s they use in their magazines. I choose the best pics from the topics a section of the magazine is talking about and I greyscale and adjust the tones for them to be put in the magazine since we don’t use color and it has to be black and white. And last part of design I do for my internship is that I design the layout of the magazine we do. My internship’s magazine name is called “Collective Endeavor” and I have to organize the text, the ad sponsors and photos to make it look cohesive and natural.

I’ve done some clerical duties in my internship, but I think I’ve only done 2 so far and I’ve only done design really. I used the type writer to write down volunteers information and log dates and the other was answering the phone about once for one of their clients.

And Lastly a typical day in my internship is my coming around 10AM saying hello to everyone and about 20 minutes in I’m given a list of things I need to do like design part of a magazine or etc and usually I’m done or halfway done by around 12:30PM. at 12:30PM is where it’s lunch time and that last around 40 minutes to an hour and then we are back into the grind. Around 1:30PM I finished my first task and then I’m given a new one that last’s around 4PM and afterwards I’m done for the day.

_{Photo by NIKON CORPORATION on Unsplash.com}

In Women’s Collective Press, the place is really chill and down to earth work environment. The atmosphere is really calm even on the busy days when theres alot of people that come in. You’re never rushed and the staff helps you when ever you have any trouble or when you’re being taught how to work on sorten assignments. When I was tasked to work on a Illustrated design I work in the corner and I’m never rushed and they give me the time to do so. It’s honestly refreshing to be in a work environment thats not overstimulating.

The attire is not anything formal, you basically can come in wearing casual clothing ot the clothing you usually wear. On my second day of the internship, I literally came in wearing my baggy Adidas sweatsuit and everything was fine, even my supervisor complimented my attire.

The workstation is not really big, I can break it down into 3 different parts. The first part is the printing room, it’s the biggest room of the internship and it’s where they have their printing machines and it’s mostly in the garage. The second part is the meeting room, it has a really small kitchen a dining table, a tv on the wall and a bunch of bookshelfs that has books and the business’s files. The third part amd the smallest is where I usually be at and it’s where we do our designing. It has 2 monitors and with 2 Mac PC’s, bookshelfs and a type writer.

Lastly is the work hours, we typically work there for 6/7 hours a day starting at 10AM. Lunch time starts around 12:30PM/1PM and we get home cook food. The food is vegan-base, I try some of the food sometimes, but usually just eat the butter bread.

In my internship I am part of the illustration team for the company, while also doing Graphic Design and Grunt work on the side. In the second week of the internship I actual did illustration work for a flyer about the company asking anybody who don’t want their car anymore and to give it to us so they can use it to make deliveries and transportation. After I was done with the Ilustrations, I was designing the layout of the Flyer and made 3 different versions of it. The next day I basically spent making a bunch of thumbnails for the next cover of the magazine they’re making and also help set up their new computers.

The supervisor for my internship is name Lisa Daniell and she’s the Operations Manager of “Womens Press Collective”, shes a nice lady and offers home cooked meals for the people who work there when it’s lunch time. I found this internship because of my friend Jabez who did his internship there last semester. It was easy to get in, I called up the place asking if I can intern there and they said it was cool and to come on saturday. When saturday came, i was introduced to the staff and had a little orientation that was done by a guy named Jason who was a volunteer here for about a year. I did some work to get into the flow of the whole place. I stood there for the whole usual shift hours of 10am to 4pm. At the end of the day I had a one on one with Lisa about my schedule and she asked questions like how can I help, my skills and where I’m best suited. She didn’t really asked for my portfolio because she just knew that if I’m from city tech that I had the basic skills they need and after that I was already in.

In the first week I found an internship at “Womens Press Collective”. It’s the first time I’ve ever done an internship. I’m working in the illustration/graphic design department of the company. I’ve worked before as a barista in starbucks, but now I’m working at a place that I don’t even get paid for. But hey got to start some where am I right.

“Womens Press Collective” is a printing press that makes magazines and makes print stuff.  They make and sell their own magazines and also join public events like protest and they get sponsers and put the ads of their sponsers in their magazines. The Place lets in anybody who’s willing to volenteer and help around so I think it counts as a public company. It’s in this little house in the Bronx at Kingsbridge so thats good for me since I also live in the Bronx so it’s just a bus ride for me to get there. The space in the place ain’t too bad unless if theirs alot of people especially on saturdays. Their clients are the people who buy their magazines and also people or news outlets who want to post their news/stories about things going on.

“Womens Press Collective” was founded in 1983 and one of their key event they do yearly is the Annual International Women’s Day Celebration they go to every year and right now we are preparing for this years one.