Week 10 and Final Thoughts

This week is actually incredibly short, in fact I am writing this on Tuesday rather than at the end of the week. I have my last meeting with Suzette tomorrow as an intern, and I already know that it will be very short and sweet. I only need to give her the disk of all the work that I have done over the semester, and get her to sign my time sheet for the last part of the semester. At least I will still be able to continue working for ArtsPartners as a volunteer.

I really feel as if I have learned a lot from this experience, not the least of which is how to put my own ideas aside and give a client what they want no matter my personal opinion. Ah well, I’m glad I got this experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Internship Week 9

This week was fun and a little sad too. I am to the point where I only have a couple of things to finalize before my time as an intern is over, and even though it has been only 10 weeks, it feels like the end of an era. It could be that I am also going to be done with Robert Morris all together that is creating this somewhat nostalgic feeling. Whatever it is, I’m more glad to be about done than anything, although I will still be working with Suzette and ArtsPartners on a volunteer basis once this is done.

The PowerPoint is about done, and Suzette will actually be showing it during a meeting on the 8^th of July, so I’m hoping to get it finished by Wednesday. Suzette very much likes the template I have created for her. I hope that she will be able to use it in the future without any issue. At least I am merely an email away if she needs anything, as well as more than willing to help. It feels very good to be able to give her something that will help them stay consistent, and that did not stray too far from what I believe is probably her brain child in the beginning.

The Educator’s Guide is nearly finished, one last eagle eyed look over, and then any changes that might be needed from the different organizations. I know that the final round of updates will be after my term as an intern is over, and I am totally ok with that. I’ll just be glad when that monster has been put to rest.

Getting to meet with Suzette was interesting this week, she had a back injury that made us have to reschedule once, and then meet in a coffee shop rather than in her office since the shop was close to her chiropractor’s office. So we kept it short and sweet, and she gave the rundown of what was needed to finish these last projects and the go ahead on the PowerPoint template. We also discussed the future of working with her, and it would seem that I will get a chance to work with the new interns coming in in a couple of weeks. I guess she feels that since I know them and I know her design aesthetic I will be able to make sure that the quality of work stays consistent. I am just glad that I will get to continue interacting on a more or less professional level with a couple of my classmates.

Ahh well, off to finish what I need to finish.

Week 8

This week has actually been fairly quiet. Suzette and I decided that because of the nature of the projects I am working on and the changed way I am actually completing my hours, we don’t need to meet every week like we were before taking on the new job. I know it is also a little harder for Suzette to put aside time to meet with me later in the day, as she tends to use that time for out of the office meetings. I do feel that this is perfectly appropriate however.

I did get a few small tweaks that I need to make for the Educator’s Guide. They were all little things that I probably missed due to the sheer number of entries. Lesson learned: don’t send in a “finished” project until you have a chance to look at it with fresh eyes or better yet have a team member look it over. I wish I had a team to show it to. Oh well, an hour later and some small tweaks and Suzette seems to be happy with it at this point. On the plus side she was very happy with it before she noticed the minor issues, and the overall look and feel of the piece is pleasing. I count that as a win.

I also gave her two new versions of the favorite Old Quarters poster. One is just the right size to be inline for a reminder email, or perhaps used as a header for the same. The other is a small ad the same size as the ones I have done for the art guild, meant to be shown in the margins of a web page.

I am also getting a chance to start on the PowerPoint project. Right now I’m trying to create a consistent custom them for the slides, and plan on basically pulling in the same information that was in the old one, just making sure to do a little of my layout magic so it looks 100% nicer. I am also going to get to use a little of my deeper PP knowledge and create a couple of slides that are interesting info graphics about financial data. Wish me luck!

Internship Week 7

So I am a little late writing my entry for week seven it is true, but I am finding it interesting finding time for all of the different things that I am working on. The Educators guide and the Posters for Pat Sullivan are turning into the gifts that keep on giving. I am also very much hoping to get to finish the power point and at least get started on the Annual Report before my internship time is up. I will be continuing with ArtsPartners as a volunteer even after my internship is up however, and will be able to finish for them and for my own piece of mind anything that I don’t finish as part of my 100 hours.

The Educators Guide, when last I wrote, was supposedly finished. Well, guess what, I missed a few entries in my formatting and had to go back and finish them. I am now waiting to hear back from Suzette on if there are any other changes that need made before this project goes to print. Thankfully I caught the mishap on my own, and was just able to tell Suzette that it was taking longer than planned. I would have been so embarrassed otherwise. Also thankfully, I found out for sure at my meeting with Suzette in week 7 that the Educator’s Guide will only be published online. This allowed me to reset some of the text, making the book longer for sure, but in my opinion quite a bit more pleasing. All of these changes (and any in the future) have added up to almost 20 hours spent on this one project. THANK GOODNESS I’M “DONE”. I don’t count minor changes, as I don’t think they will mean sitting in front of a computer repeating the same movement so many times that my shoulder was sore for a week.

I also found out at the meeting that although Pat has not yet had a chance to decide which of my poster options he prefers, Suzette would like me to go ahead with creating some smaller version of the one that she and I both decided we like the best. I think this will be fun, but is currently scheduled for week 8.

I actually had to take a few days off of working on Internship projects for a few days due to the fatigue of the typesetting for the Educator’s Guide. Suzette actually told me to take a few days as I guess I was inadvertently a bit more pathetic about my shoulder pain in our meeting on Wednesday than I meant to be. With the work I am doing during the day and the work I am doing trying desperately not to fall behind in my classes I really do get pretty sore after a bit. Oh well, such is life I suppose.

Weeks 5&6

Well, after a couple of crazy weeks it is time to get caught up writing about my experiences with this adventure called my internship. In the last two weeks, I have had my mid-terms, started a new job, and finished two of the largest single projects that I will have for my internship. I also got a new job via email (yay) from the ArtGuild. All told, the last couple of weeks have been interesting and notable, but maybe not as much of a true learning experience as I would have hoped.

The first real thing that happened was of course making it to the mid-term point of this semester and this internship. I of course completed my evaluation of the site and received my evaluation so far from Suzette. I indicated that I am quite pleased with the internship and my learning opportunities. I really feel as if they are keeping me busy, and that I am learning. The only negative I really have is that I no longer really feel as if I am getting the kind of feedback I need to really learn how to grow as a designer. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely growing in my abilities to work with a client and with a deadline, but my design is not growing the same way I hoped it would. At first I was nice to hear that I am great all the time, after all, who doesn’t like a little bit of ego stroking? But I’ve started to feel like it is either less than genuine, or that perhaps Suzette is just used to working with really incompetent people. I mean, she asked on my mid-term evaluation if I could be cloned. I’m not THAT good, and I really wish that I was getting a little bit more in the way of real, positive, growth worthy feedback. I would almost rather feel as if I was disappointing, at least then I would feel a need to push myself for the sake of these projects.

I started a new job this week as well (week 6) and it has proven to be a bit more challenging to get everything done than I had anticipated. Finding time to work at home without distractions can be very hard, especially since my significant other has been on vacation and of course want my attention when I get home. I also find it terribly hard on days when I am worn out to sit down and get anything done, all I really want to do is tool around on the internet, or watch TV and go to bed early. I do like the new job though, and really am looking forward to the day when I am done with school and focus my attention on what I really feel like can be my career if the conditions continue to be right.

I have been successful at getting two major projects finished over the last two weeks. I have gotten the Educator’s Guide finished, and I have gotten not one but two strong versions of the Old Quarters Posters for Mr. Sullivan. Each of these projects took approximately 10 hours to complete, and I learned a lot from each. Heck I was even able to take what I learned from the posters and use it in the first mini project I was given in my new professional position.

The Educator’s Guide, thankfully, came with all of the copy already produced, but I did have to layout the publication, and figure out a lot of little quirky things. Using the character formatting etc was very helpful, and thankfully I remembered how to use it. I also had to figure out how to use different faces of Frutiger (as that was the typeface used for the chosen cover) in such a way to produce the final look I wanted. I also had a lot of “fun” getting the cross alignment correct and getting all of the given information to line up correctly and not produce widows and such that would just ruin the booklet. I feel as if I learned a lot more about multi-page layout form this project that I did in class even, after all I had to use all of the copy I was given and couldn’t edit it except to fix the occasional typo. With my own booklets I’ve done in the past it was no problem to make up something extra or cut out something unneeded to make the layout I wanted work.

The posters I created for Pat Sullivan were a lot of fun, and also taught me a lot, even though I definitely used a lot of previous knowledge. I was able to create what I think are interesting and attention grabbing posters. I only hope that Pat feels the same way. Unfortunately getting ahold of him has been interesting and complicated. I learned from Suzette that he decided to run for political office, and even she is having a hard time getting ahold of him. I will probably be turning over the files for the posters to her, and she will give them to Mr. Sullivan when she gets a chance and actually talked to him again herself. I actually am somewhat irritated by this turn of events, as it is possible that I spent about 10 hours working on these posters that no one will ever see, including the person who wanted them in the first place. I was able to use what I learned in creating them to create a flyer for an upcoming event for my new employer however, so I suppose it is not time wasted.

Lastly, I am happy to report that I have received some work for the Art Guild. It is a small online ad, but I have more creative freedom with this one at least. I was also told in the email requesting the work that there would be other things for me to do in a week or so. I am just glad that they really do want me to continue doing things for them, and that I will get a chance to prove that I am capable of getting things done even though I am not going to be in the office on a regular basis any more.

Internship Week 4

This week was just about as interesting as the rest, with the added bonus of a bittersweet “Goodbye” and meeting a new person to work with all in the same week. I am continuing to learn from the many different projects that I am involved in, and I am also continuing how to better interact with people in a more professional setting.

I unfortunately had to say “goodbye” to the art guild as this Wednesday was the last day I will be working in their offices. I did of course make sure that they know that I am available anytime through e-mail and that I can make it into the building on a limited basis if they need me to. I only hope that I continue to be able to work with them. I really enjoy the people, and I really feel like the kind of work I have done for them is the kind of work that a lot of designers do. I feel like I was, and hopefully is, a good learning experience to work on a short deadline, and to work within an established framework. I know in the job I will be starting on the 6^th EVERYTHING I will be doing must be within an established framework. I do feel as if I have figured out how to leave my individual mark on the projects, and utilize my creativity, framework or not, and the is really the main task.

I also got to meet Pat Sullivan this week. I will be creating a few promotional materials for him and the Arts Market on the Riverfront. Pat himself is an interesting character, high energy, and somewhat excitable. I did have to let him down gently that I wouldn't be able to do as much as he wants. Although considering I think he was under the assumption that I would either be a full time free worker, or that I am able to do things twice as fast as anyone else, this didn't exactly hurt my conscience. I actually discussed it with Suzette, and she felt that a total of about 10 hours for the rest of my internship was appropriate. So, right now I am working on posters for Pat.

I also got a final decision on the cover for the Educator’s Guide this week, although it will be a bit before I get the copy I need to actually complete that project. Lastly, I finished work on the first round of samples for the Art and Society Ad I am working on for ArtsPartners. I can finish that as soon as I get some new photos, and Suzette has a chance to look them over. I’m am looking forward to getting another project from the list given me at the start of the semester finished and be able to move on.

Internship Week 3

So I’ve finished week 3, and so very much has changed in the last seven days. Firstly, I actually got the job I was interviewing for last week! This makes me super happy, since it’s a job that will allow me to actually make enough money to pay back those school loans by doing what I took all the loans to learn. Of course, this means that my internship is going to be restructured a little bit. Before actually starting this semester, Suzette and I had discussed the likelihood of me working from home the majority of the time, a plan that changed when the Art Guild mentioned that they had extra work space for me to use, even if I do tend to use my own computer. Now that I am getting this job, I will have to revert to that original plan once I start, right after mid-term.

Perhaps because they know that I will no longer be in the office in a couple of weeks, and hopefully not because they don’t actually like the work I’ve been doing as much as they say they do, the Art Guild has had literally only about 30 min of work for me to do this week. I basically got to do the type setting for the sheet for Jenny that I couldn’t do last week. I’m glad I got to do it for her in time for it to be put in the physical packets that were handed out at Thursday’s shindig. I really hope that they have more work for me to do in the future. I also really hope that they have faith that I am capable of working from home and getting stuff to them in a timely manner.

One very big plus side to not working as much on Art guild stuff is that I am really getting somewhere with the artwork for the 2011 Educator’s Guide. I have three really cool ideas for reworking the apple; I just need to work on how exactly I am going to create a unified theme for the cover. Really, I need to just sit down and do a couple of mood boards, and that is probably where I’ll be going next with this project. I also got to experience calling everyone who hadn’t gotten all of their blurbs for the inside turned in to Suzette yet. There were quite a few, and I just hope that everything is ready to go by the time I need to have this thing ready to go to print. I suppose I’ll probably always have to deal with this sort of thing, waiting for copy or whatnot so I can finish a project. I’ve just decided to consider it good practice for the future.