Phoenix926's Blog

Eighth/Ninth Week Elaborate Nit-picking

phoenix926 — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:44:34 +0000

Ok, I know and I’m sorry I forgot to get a post last week, but I had a lot on my plate last weekend and the blog kinda slipped my mind.

Anyway, two weeks ago, I showed Jordan some of the concepts I had for the logo she had me working on. As they were not what she was really looking for, I had to spent a good part of the weekend working on a few more designs to show her before I came in again. With this on top of struggling to learn ActionScript for my other class, and having to do a day’s worth of yard work, I feel it’s understandable how writing a blog could be forgotten. But I digress. . .

On a lighter note, some of the work done over the past two weeks included making revisions to the thumbnails that we made for the company’s portfolio page. Doing more database collection and hygiene. And gaining a better understanding of how a lot of people don’t realize how much time it takes to make what they think are small changes when they are really changes that have the potential to completely collapse a working schedule (these people are mainly clients). But you learn that you almost always have to leave room in your schedule to allow for none of what you planned for the day to be done because of one, innocent sounding phone call.

Now that I have reached the minimum 120 hours for this class, I feel I can say that I have gained a pretty full understanding of what to expect working in the design field. and while it may be stressful at times, what makes up for it is that I’m doing work that makes me happy at the end of the day. And isn’t that what really counts?

Seventh Week Summary

phoenix926 — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:28:48 +0000

Both days I was in this week felt and went pretty much the same, so I’ll just summarize both at once. I spent time making some revisions to the thumbnails that were worked on last week. I worked more on some initial concepts for a logo I’m designing, as well as make a more specific typographic display for said logo. I also worked on more administrative tasks, such as scanning papers, collecting data into an excel file, and helping to clean up and organize around the office. I would say more, but I really don’t have anything else to add. If anything, next week looks to be a little bit more interesting.

Sixth Week Special

phoenix926 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:50:28 +0000

Ok, my follow-up for this week actually starts last Saturday. On Saturday, I helped to set up the booth/area we worked at while attending AFP in Baltimore. That was all that was done on Saturday. Tuesday on the other hand, was a lot more interesting and fun. Granted, I had to get up a lot earlier than I normally do, but it was worth it to help out at the booth telling people all about Antharia and 44Fish. But that wasn’t all, I also gained a better understanding of the different areas of non-profit support, how well having connections and partnerships help, as well as learning about some of Antharia’s competitors.

Today (Thursday), we were back at the office. While not as obviously exciting as AFP was, I still had fun cropping screenshots to create thumbnails for a gallery, updating a bunch of laptops, and other administrative work that I enjoy doing.

Fifth Week Follow-Up

phoenix926 — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:04:50 +0000

This week was pretty much the same as last week, working on the infographic, getting more comfortable with the Mac interface, gaining a better understanding of what Anthaira’s products have to offer for clients. It may not sound like a lot, but I’ve been doing a few things in each of these areas. I guess the big difference for this week is that we are getting ready for a conference that starts this weekend and runs through Tuesday. And now to get ready, I’m going to catch-up on sleep I’ve lost because of the insanely high pollen count we’ve had the past few days (high pollen count = 90, today’s pollen count = 4000).

Fourth Week Fun

phoenix926 — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:48:54 +0000

Now that I’ve been interning here for a few weeks I’m really starting to get the hang of the work flow. During this week, I made some real progress on the infographic I’ve been working on. Now I just need to work on a short list of technical and designs adjustments and it’s done. I’ve also gained a better understanding of the tasks that have to be completed around the office to keep it running smoothly.

Along those lines, I’ve gained a better understanding of which tasks take precedence over others. Mainly, If there is a task that needs to be completed for a client do that first, followed by company projects, then the rest. For example, this week I helped with migrating data from a list of online articles to a database for one of the clients. And because it was for a client, it had to be done first.

To finish up, what made this week fun was that I’ve started to make my transition to doing things on a Mac. I haven’t started to do design work on the Mac yet, but I’m gaining a better understanding on the differences between a Mac and a PC.

Third Week Occurences

phoenix926 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:45:34 +0000

This week has proven to be a bit more interesting. On Tuesday during the team huddle (staff meeting), I was given a quick diagram of how Antharia’s phone system is set up so that I could it to make an inforgraphic for the company’s wiki for people to check if they need to learn (or relearn) how it all works. Also during the huddle, I learned we were at the point with a couple of clients’ sites that we were to test the donations and stores pages for any technical and visual errors. So after the huddle, we went to our computers and tried to break a half-dozen or so webpages.

After that, I was also given an assignment to work on a few logo designs for a company called Barks Around / Purrfection. So I spent the rest of Tuesday and some of Thursday working on the two design assignments I have. Speaking of Thursday, other than the design work, I did some more administrative work; mainly printing and preparing documents, and getting some vouchers ready for the mail.

So now that I have a much better understanding of what to expect while interning here, I feel this will definitely prove to be a great experience for me.

Second Week Happenings

phoenix926 — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:34:55 +0000

This week proved to be a little interesting. On Tuesday, I attended a roundtable disscussion concerning the use of social media (ie. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in the workplace and to help boost non-profit awareness. Not much else happened after that. Today (Thursday), I continued to help with some administrative work. This included some quality control involving some settings some of the clients were having some concerns about. I was also directed to a couple of places I could do some light research on the company’s clients and some new design aspects.

So now I feel fairly confident working with the day to day processes and management parts of this internship. It looks like I will start work on more of the design end of the internship next week. So until then, I think I’ll take some time to relax and enjoy this nice weather.

First Week Impressions

phoenix926 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:16:55 +0000

I started my internship with Antharia this week, and I feel I will at least enjoy the work enviornment. It is a casual workplace and kind of has the feel of a home office without being one. I can;t really say much about the work quitre yet, because this first week was used to introduce me to the company, get some papers filled out, get myself into the system, and some work on some administrative stuff to get me started. I have been told I will start getting involved with more of the design aspects of the position starting next week.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. I guess we’ll see how I feel about working here by the end of next week. ‘Till then, later.

Internship Obtained

phoenix926 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:07:52 +0000

I have just secured an internship at Antharia and I start working next Tuesday(02/09). From what was discussed it looks like I will be helping in the design and prototyping process so that Antharia’s clients get the results they want. I guess all that is left is to see if this is the type of work I would like to do for a career.

Preparing for Interviews

phoenix926 — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:37:27 +0000

I have now been in contact with all three places I have applied for internships and have two interviews scheduled. Initially, the first one would have taken place today and Antharia, but they have a deadline they have to meet so I had to reschedule for Monday. So now I’m preparing for an interview tomorrow at 2pm at Sports 55.