My supervisor Isana Leshchinskaya is my mentor and she helps me and other interns complete each project as much as possible. Every project we completed, she carefully checked it and told us where it should be fixed and gave her suggestions. After we fixed, she still checked it to make sure everything was perfect, and then sent it to our director. We all have to stay at home to continue our internship, she emails the assignments on time every Monday and Thursday amidst COVID-19 that make sure we keep the pathway of the intern. We text Isana when we have some questions about the project, and she responds to us as soon as possible. Almost at the end of the semester, she requires us to do the PowerPoint and present at the meeting which helps us practice for presentation and have time to prepare. I am very happy to meet her and become my mentor in the internship.

As I am working at IE Office Brooklyn College which is a nice experience for me and I am thankful for this opportunity. Since I started working here on the first day, every project and challenge that taught me a lot. In addition, I am aware that communicating with team members is the most important part because we can share ideas and thoughts with each other that makes me find the path where I am. 

Personally, I felt I have done all my best in each project. Also, I found that this experience has changed me in many ways because some skills in adobe illustrator I never used before like a splash ink tool, and I tried to view different videos and learned how to achieve this effect that develop my project. When I see the clients feel happy with the designs that push me hard working. In addition, working with others makes me find my way and improves my conversation skills as well as. I have benefited a lot from this opportunity and thankful that I have a chance to join their team.

We had a short meeting last Tuesday, and know that next week we start working with Angelica. At the meeting, Isana asked us what version we have for Indesign because Anglice doesn’t have the latest version. Therefore, Fengyi borrowed her Adobe account to Angelica that downloaded the latest version of Indesign. For this project, we should recreate the survey handbook. Angelica has to rewrite the contents of the handbook. FengYi and I did the little figures and icons last week. For now, we are working on developing all of the other figures in the handbook like charts, graphs, and questionnaires. In addition, Isana is going offline today after 12 pm for the rest of the week, thus, we should keep in touch with Angelica by self. After, Angelica emails us Brooklyn College have their own guideline of what their Brand publications entail, and mentions that she doesn’t have anyone of those for Brooklyn College fonts and she tried to find either a fitting replacement or any of these actual fonts and download it. I sent a link to her and let her know how to find those fonts and activities, so she doesn’t need to spend much time finding those fonts. 

On Thursday, we keep working with a survey book, Fengyi and I are trying to make the same layout they did before for the book because Isana told us that the layout was mostly the same. The original file we received was a pdf file that cannot be converted into an InDesign file, therefore the text cannot edit. So we should step by step to recreate each text box that can be edited. Finally, we completed the first draft of a survey book. From this project, I have learned that teamwork would be the best solution when we struggle out with something.

After a few weeks, we got feedback for the logo, they picked my IRDA logo, but there should be a change to the logo. 

For this logo:

Sana said it should remove the arrow. Instead, put a white trend line above the bars. The line should be similar to the gray line here, but white and above the bars:

Also, Isana told us all of the logos should come with the black and white version, which is black letters, white background; white letters, black background. And Brooklyn College above “Office of…” on the long logo version; Brooklyn College below the letters in the short version.

After I fixed, Isana told me that when the figures are black and white, the “A” seems to be melting into the bar, and outline the part of the letter “A” that is overlapping the bar so that it is clear where the letter ends.

The final draft of the IRDA logo:

Brooklyn College is closed because of Coronavirus disease, therefore my internship switched to online for the remainder of this semester. So for this week, my supervisor sent us instructions via email and shared the Dropbox file that ensured all of the work should be uploaded there. Today’s assignment is to design the logo for the office, which is called “Office of Educational Research and Assessment” or “ERA” for short. They would like two versions of the logo, one with the full name, one with the short acronym. Moreover, they would like to see 5 versions for each of those, and the long name and short name of the logo should come in pairs, so 5 themes,  total is 10 logos. Later, Isana has a link under the email, and let us look at the City Tech Assessment website (AIRE) for an idea of the logo style they like, but make sure to use Brooklyn College imagery or colors as inspiration instead of City Tech.

Below was the example of AIRE logo

And below was my designs of ERA logo

In the next week, we continue working logos Monday and Thursday. My supervisor would like to see five more versions of the ERA logo. In addition, we still need to design 10 logos for the Office of Institutional Research and Data Analysis (IRDA) and 10 logos for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (IE). The three offices are related to each other, so there should be some similarities in the logos. Also, Isana showed an example for us to explore more ideas. The example list below:

Therefore, based on the example and I used the background in my logo designs. 

On Thursday, we got feedback for logos, they picked the first one of ERA and IRDA and based on these ideas to develop 5 logos for each one, and IE still needed to work. After that, we got a meeting at 2:00 – 3:00. There were 13 participants and we discussed each other, I think that would be a great experience to learn how to have communication with others. 

There was the second draft of the IE and IRDA logos:

After finishing the poster, I started doing the same task with my partner. The upcoming would be a busy week, in which we worked for almost 20 hours. On the first day of the week, we were going to design a couple of versions of the postcard for a student experience survey. This was a big challenge to us because we never did this before, however, we researched information and a bunch of postcard designs to find inspiration to develop in our design. Later, we had a small group meeting with my supervisor and director. We shared our own ideas of visual postcards and discussed each other. They chose my idea and told me it should be changed to be another color. After the meeting, Isana dragged Brooklyn College brand guidelines on each person’s laptop and suggested that the color use the secondary colors. Therefore, we continue to work on postcards.

On Thursday, Isana printed the list for us and pointed out what we should do in detail, which included two postcards, two posters, one big banner, and three boards. My partner and I have assigned different tasks because of time limits. Almost at the end of the day, we finished all the drafts about this project. But unfortunately, the client changed her mind and we should redesign the whole thing because all designs should be kept in the same style. And Isana made sure that we can continue the work tomorrow. We tried to learn some new skills from YouTube like making splash ink in Adobe Illustrator. 

On the last day of this week, we prepared the whole thing for this project. At the meeting, we showed us our works and they were satisfied with it. I realized that was a great opportunity to learn even though we need to redo the whole thing.

Previous Versions:

New Versions:

On the second day of the internship, we got a new project which is a poster for “2020 The Cuny Middle States Council Presents: Msche Symposium” instead of handbook cover. The design is also similar to the handbook cover, a simple layout with an abstract graphic background. Isana showed us the previous interns’ work, the pdf files come with different colors with the same version for 2019. For this project, we should come up with 5 versions at a limited time because Isana had a meeting. She chose 3 pieces of artwork from each person before we left.

During the next week, Isana told me they picked my first version of the poster as their favorite. I am excited they chose my design, and Isana explained to me where I needed to fix it. Therefore, I am still working on a poster and my partner assigned to start the new project.

This was the final poster version:

The first project we are going to design two book covers, one was the AES assessment handbook which for the registered office, learning center and the number of students attending the event that link to the budget. Another one was the General Education Assessment Workbook which for students to access their goal and make strategies to fulfill the College’s mission. My supervisor showed us the example of the previous design they used and explained to us the client’s demands. The client demands the size was 8.5 x 11 inches, the design gonna use an abstract graphic background, and for the color which is based on the Brooklyn College’s logo, “maroon”. After that, we started working on our first project. We should have six versions of each book cover, the first step we are going to sketch out our ideas for the cover and communicate with a partner which can improve the work looks better, and the second step was to create the visual book cover. At a specific time, our supervisor would take a look at our design and provide some suggestions and show us where it should be fixed. The biggest challenge for this project was the color limited and must use a graphic background as the cover, no images. I hope I can brainstorm more ideas for this project and work better.

Here were my designs:

The first day I started my internship, I got three minutes late and felt nervous. I was wearing casual clothing and got to the IE Brooklyn College Office at 9 o’clock. When I stepped into the office, I noticed that our office doesn’t have a dress code. In this office, this was an open work area, also there is a conference room and comes with a long table in the middle. And we should bring our own laptop to the office when we work because the office does not come with a device. Normally, Isana who is my supervisor and she was sitting in front of us to work on her own business like paperwork or something, and my classmate FengYi who is another intern, there were only three of us in the office. My supervisor worked here for 8 hours or less. I usually go to the office on Monday and Thursdays at 9 AM and work for 6 hours per day. If you want to work more hours you can come early. In addition, we got a 30-minute lunch break. The schedule is very flexible.

I was recently hired by IE Office Brooklyn College to be their intern. This institution is located at Brooklyn College campus. The Brooklyn College Office of the Provost for Institutional Effectiveness aims to process to plan and make strategies to fulfill the College’s mission. The office’s main client would be students who are looking for what they are doing, how they are doing, and how to make it better to meet their goal. The office is a key tool to help students in the path of success.  Honestly, I am excited to join their team and develop my skills and knowledge.

Here’s a link to all two websites:
https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/administration/provost/institutional-effectiveness.php
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/offices/avpbandp/ipra/institutionalassessment.htm