Notes

Wait, we’ve been out of the recession for how long? So, where’s my job?

“On the way there, Kim did my tarot card reading.  I asked ‘How can I become successful professionally after college?’  I drew the King of Pentacles, which means that I will have to be patient and trust my logic, but will also make good decisions. That was interesting!”

Yea….very interesting. I wrote that a year ago in this very blog.  Patient is an understatement.  I don’t have to tell you how hard it is to find a job right now because you already know. I don’t have to complain to you and whine about how things aren’t going as planned, or how you always imagined they would because you already know. So I won’t.

I just stumbled across my old internship blog and read every single entry. I was hooked.  It was like reading something written by a different person. I was excited, learning, WORKING…living.  I know it takes a while for anyone to get a job they like, but right now it doesn’t even seem possible to get a job that I hate.  And I’m running out of time; my current situation has made the ability to pay for my own place more than just something I want, but more of something I have to do so that I’m not living out of a cardboard box under the Zakim. Yay, real life is fun.

In the mean time, come visit me at T.J. Maxx, I’ll be at the jewelry counter selling gold earrings and Fossil watches I can’t even afford with my 10% discount.

As you were.

PICKING PANTONE is imPOSSIBLE

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

HURRAY! Worth FINALLY decided on a logo, and it was mine! WOOO! Now I get to save out all the files correctly AND pick a Pantone color.  Something I learned this weak is that picking an uncoated Pantone color to match a color on screen is next to impossible. I literally stared at little square swatches (from out lovely Pantone binders) for at least three hours.  I narrowed it down to two and spent another two hours deciding between them.  Impossible!

Then, Michelle informed me that we were going to pitch to them ideas for letterheads and business cards so that they can pay us for more stuff.  COOL! Now that I know we don’t necessarily the job yet, I feel responsible for directly earning the company some money with these comps.  So I hit the books and researched for inspiration.

The first few that I came up with Michelle said were “too cool” for a publishing company. DARN! I guess I’m just thinking in an out of the box mode for my internship journal so its showing in the stuff I do at work.  So I refocused on the style that I had created for Worth’s logo.  Cool Stuff! This logo is like my baby! I’m very excited to watch it grow up into business cards and letterheads!

Monday and Tuesday

Friday: I didn’t go to work because my dad’s cousin was getting a school dedicated to him in Providence, so I went to that instead.  Don’t worry I’m working this Wednesday.

Monday: Uhmm…what happened on Monday?  Oh, that’s why I don’t remember, I searched for stock photography for the first half of the day and then proofed a website for the second half of the day.  Stock photography…..still funny….always good for a laugh.  What else can I tell you?  Interesting commuting note: FROM SCHOOL: time to get there: 1hr 45 mins/time to get home: 1 hr - FROM HOME: time to get there: 1hr 30mins/time to get home: 1hr 30mins — I can’t explain these findings.

Tuesday: Today I proofed a different website ALL DAY LONG.  It wasn’t that bad though because this website was actually fun to surf around in.  It’s a site for a gaming company who possesses a certain sense of humor.  There is plenty for a user to do because it is based around a social networking theme with a blog and the ability to comment etc.  I tried to post funny comments just to break up the day and make people laugh; I got a few compliments throughout the day which was nice. However, my eyes were definitely burning by the end of the day, which happens occasionally, which worries me.

I really don’t want to go to work tomorrow, it’s the day before Thanksgiving…give me a break…at least there won’t be traffic…right?

The Tap Dance

It was my turn to clean the kitchen today, and I obliged.  It’s just too bad everyone came up and ate lunch after I had cleaned the kitchen.

Then I helped another designer complete a design task for a deadline that was at 1pm.  I find that sometimes its not the best when I just jump in and help because I don’t fully understand all of the design that has already been completed with the project.  I found that there was some disconnect with some of my designs and the rest of the project.  Oh well, I do what I can in the time that is given to me.

Then Professor Farrier came for the site visit.  Lucky for him, my internship adviser made it back from a client meeting just in time.  I thought the meeting went pretty smoothly.  I learned a lot more from Michelle, actually.  I guess it’s because I haven’t actually just sat down with her and asked her certain questions.  This meeting also reinforced my idea to redo my portfolio, it’s just overdesigned and ridiculous.  I just want to do a simple layout and let my work do the talking! Like I’ve always wanted! Anyways, Michelle had some very good things to say about me. I hope she meant everything, it’s hard to tell because I know how good she is at selling designs, she might have just felt obligated to sell me to my professor just to help me out with class.

Who knows.

I hope I can make it to poker night/celebrate dave getting married tomorrow!

That is all.

Classical Tuesday

Today was very nice.  In the morning, I had a client call to explain the final round of logo designs.  I think it went well, but I always get so nervous.  A surge of adrenaline goes through me when I pick up the telephone.  I’ll be talking and telling myself the whole time “don’t sound nervous, don’t stutter, don’t sound nervous….Ohp! i just heard a waver in your voice! Don’t blow it! Try to salvage the rest of the sentence!” Sigh…it’s very exhausting.  I need to gain some confidence…perhaps with some experience…

And another thing…my next step is to speak up in group critiques.  I really wanted to say something today, but I kept thinking that nobody would listen to me or I didn’t know what I was talking about because I am just an intern who has never really done web design.  Tomorrow, I’ve decided that I’m going to say what I wanted to say today. So there!

For the rest of the day I made some new pages for a site that has already started development, cool!

And there better not be classical music on tomorrow!

Sometimes you have to make your own luck…

So I thought about it, and confronted my supervisors first thing in the morning.  I told them that I wanted to make sure they knew that if they were ever in the position to hire someone like me in the future, that I would be very interested.  My supervisor just clapped and said YAY! And I went on too tell Carin how I admired what she was doing, and how she was handling everything that was going on with the company.  She told me that she really appreciated me saying that, and she seemed very sincere.  Big Risks = Big Rewards.

George is right….forget being subtle….go out and get yours!

11.11 make a wish.

I know what my wish is.  To get hired by this damn company, except it’s not going to happen if I don’t start acting like a socially normal human being.  The subject was sprung on to me again by the client director at a meeting, I could explain the entire conversation in detail but that would only upset me.  Basically she was talking about me coming back in the summer, but I thought she meant as an intern, so I said “sure” in a semi-joking manner.  Why am I so retarded! I guess this wouldn’t have mattered too much if this conversation wasn’t in front of my supervisor and owner of the company; but it was.  I went back to Kim and clarified what I meant in casual conversation, and she said “well get on that and make it happen, now’s the time to tell them that your interested and ask what you need to do”. I explained that I was unsure because of all the layoffs, but Kim assured me that there were a TON of new business opportunities coming in. So my job is to somehow let my supervisor know all of this soon.  Problem is that I am way too concerned about timing and being subtle, and that I am way too socially awkward.  I don’t know how to go about this.  ARGH!

Good news though, I had a client call all by myself! Well, my supervisor was on the phone with me, but she didn’t say a word.  I ran the whole show by myself! So cool, so awesome, I felt very proud of myself after that.  Logo call is tomorrow I hope, that is the REAL big one! I hope I’m impressing her!

Fun Fact of the day: Radio buttons are the “click to fill in circle” buttons you see on websites, and programmers don’t like it when you design check boxes, radio buttons, or forms

Realization of the day: I HATE FACEBOOK

Monday and Tuesday

MONDAY

I’m starting to really hate the letter “b”. I get to spend a ridiculous amount of time finishing up this round of logos because the other designer I’m working with won’t have time to work on it this week.  I guess it’s kind of cool that my supervisor is giving me the reins. It’s just really hard to be spending up to 21 hours on this thing.  I feel like I have exhausted all possibilities, and I’ve been looking at it for so long, that nothing even makes sense to my brain anymore.  I need to take a break from it.  I just have to keep asking myself what I haven’t tried yet, or why this particular design isn’t as good as it could be.

SO exhausting, nothing too fun today.  Maybe tomorrow……

TUESDAY

Wow.  You only see this stuff in the movies.  We had a company meeting today…and in a way I feel that what I learned in this meeting is a personal and internal issue that I shouldn’t go into detail with.  I feel close to this company for some reason, and I want to keep their privacy.  All I can really say is that a financial officer was fired and now, Carin will be taking over as the sole owner and president of the company and head of new business opportunities.  A lot of things are going on professionally and personally, but I can say it is really wonderful to watch the company come together as a family.  I know that with this behind them, H&G can move forward and reclaim the success they once had as company.

Anyways, I worked on logos all day. I was left on my own, and I will be the only designer on the call tomorrow to explain designs.  I’m a little nervous that I didn’t present everything correctly on the client post, or that I won’t have the right words to say, I was kind of let go to run with the project on my own.  We’ll see how it goes!

what a day.

Can someone make a flow chart on the differences between “Earth” and “Planet Earth”?

What a splendid day.

I finished my page edits for the time being, and started working on the next round of logo edits.  My day was at least 25% more enjoyable because I put “Disney” into Pandora and let it ride! Anyways, my competitive side was kicking in because it was down to one of my designs and one of Scott’s designs.  With the drive to come up with the best solution, I got down to business!  At pit crit, my supervisor asked me how psyched would I be if I saw my logo on the side of a book binding at a book store.  I said that I would be cool on the outside, but secretly freaking out on the inside.  After struggling to make my own best design, I realized that what the client really wanted was a mix between the two designs.  So I tried doing that for the rest of the afternoon.  It just felt wrong playing with another designers work.  But I suppose he did that with mine during the last round.  I have to remember that this isn’t about designer A or designer B, its about Hunt and Gather putting out good work.

It will be fun seeing how it ends up!

I got asked to have some drinks with everyone after work.  I had to decline because they all work late and I live forever away….BUMMER!

And that’s that!