So this is it, my last week. I spent this week trying to get those icons done but it seems impossible because even though my boss claims he likes my work he always wants me to make a few little changes. I wanted to get over with those icons so I could start working on the website. Any way I could not finish on time, luckily they offer me a part time position so I’ll have time to finish all the pending projects:)

After laying out the brochure, I started looking for stock photos to replace the out of date existing ones. I found a couple that I like and made a lightbox and email it to my boss. I try to make the new design as close to the old one as possible and make a few changes that I consider were appropriate.

 

Once I got the most of the brochure done my boss asked me to make it 3 panels instead of 4 so I had to cut and paste the return card off the brochure and put it on a separate file. My boss hasn’t decided which pictures to use so I have to wait for that; plus I have to take a picture of a product that will be placed on the back of the brochure.

 

Another thing I had to do was continue designing the computer icons, some I spent  some time working on those too.

I got to the office and started printing the suggestions for the website. I was happy with what I had done but in the back of my mind I was thinking of a way to tell my boss that the website sucks without sounding rude. My boss has no idea how bad the website really is, so he might tried to defend it.

We gathered in the conference room and I went trough each of the details that needed to be improved; I explained to them why some things needed to be changed; I asked questions about the importance of some of the information. We took a look at some of the competitors’ websites.

Luckily they didn’t take my criticism personal and they are willing to let me make the changes needed. However, it might take several months to finish this website because there are some complex things that need to be addressed. I’m not going to have time to build the website during my internship time, so that’s probably a potential freelance work for me.

I wanted to start designing the navigation bar for the website but they asked me to start with the brochure project, in which I have to make a replica of an exiting brochure (I hate making replicas). So after hours looking for fonts similar to the ones used on the old brochure I started made the layout and created paragraph and character styles using InDesign; all I have to do know is figure out a way to make the graphics so they look similar to the original.

This week my boss and the rest of the management team are out for the conference in which my promotional poster for the Nintendo wee will be displayed. So because they where taking my laptop and the rest of the computers at work do no have the creative suite installed I was asked work either from home or at the college. My tasks for this week included get estimates to print the CD packaging, review their website and write down suggestions to make it better. Well I wasn’t thrilled about going to printing shop but I did it anyway, both of the print shops told me they could not give me an quote right away that I have to wait one or two weeks plus both of them just do the printing part of it so they have to send it to another companies to get it cut and assemble (it gives me a headache just to think about it).

Well not to bore you, I started reviewing their website and oh Lord!!!! It is a lot worst than I thought it was. Overall, it has no appropriate titles, their logo is at the bottom of the page and do not appear on every page, it has a lot of font sizes and colors, but the worst thing is how dated it is; it has power point presentations from the 90’s with the name tag “Online Tour”

Because I really want to help I checked every page and link carefully, make notes and comments on each of the pages, and start thinking of ways to improve it. A lot of good ideas came to my mind so I wrote them down and end up with a four page proposal; I also created a button sample, a flowchart and a comp detailing what I thought would be a more appropriate layout. Hopefully my boss will listen to my suggestions.

Well just went I was getting exited about getting the CD packaging printed and assembled my boss, a coworker and I had a discussion about how much would it cost to print 1,000 CD and covers; my boss came to the conclusion that at the moment we didn’t have the budget to get the covers printed so he asked me to come up with a design just for the CD, that meant that I have to change the original design for one that would make the CD stand out as an independent piece; that also meant the I have to figure out a way to take the text that was originally in the square shape packaging and arrange it in the round area of the CD. So I went back to my computer all disappointed of course, but my boss came in and told me that he is going to have the packaging printed just not at that moment, he even asked me to go at least 2 different print shops to get quotes because he is thinking in having the packaged CDs mail to people who request them in the website; anyway it feels good knowing that the project I worked so hard for is going to be printed.

Finally in an effort to make the CD stand out on its own I ended up creating a design that is way better the one I had before, I mean it look like the last one but 50 times better. Therefore, I am so glad I was not able to go ahead a print the last one.

At the end of that day, I was creating a layout for a brochure with was my next task. Because they do not have the digital file I was retyping the information from the old brochure (I hate typing by the way), when my boss came in with a surprise task for which was to design two computer icons for two of their products. I spent the rest of the day and the day after that designing one of the icon, the reason why it took so look was because my boss and I have totally different ideas of what a computer icon should looks like, plus, he tents to scale and print out everything which really bothers me because it looks terribly pixilated and even if it didn’t look pixilated it won’t look the same because it was designed to be small and for the screen not for paper.

I was exited about designing a computer icon because I had never done one before but at the same time I was irritated because my boss would print every variation of it. When I completed the first icon and my boss was happy with it, one of the programmers try to convert it into an icon which I had no idea how until know because thankfully I learn that there are some free software that you can download to convert jpeg and gif images into icons.

 

So I got to the office to find the poster I made the previews’ week on my desk, it was very nice to see it printed and mounted on a clear frame and ready to show at the conventions’ booth, so I was very exited, it really made my day .

I started working on a cd cover and package design, I was just asked to design a the cover that was going to be printed on the cd but I decided to also design a package for to put the cd in so it would look a little bit more marketable. So I watched the content of the cd because the idea was to make it look like the content but at the same time it had to match the rest of the marketing material in an existing folder they have. I spent 2 days working on that and I came out with 4 different comps. I cut and assembled the cd cases to make it look as realistic as possible so they would have no problems visualizing the final product. They absolutely love the idea of the cases for the cds!!! I guess the comps were excellent because they could not decide which they like the best.

So they gave me a new office, is not as big as the conference room but at least I have more privacy so I can focus more. I also got a huge flat screen 22” monitor, how thoughtful of them!!! It is so much easier to see what I’m doing on a screen that big. Anyway, I did the final touches on the logo and finished it. The next task was to make a letterhead using the logo so I have to make it smaller and position it so it would match the existing letterheads (not an easy task) why do things that look so easy to do are the hardest? After struggling for hours and spending a lot of paper, I realized that the printer moves it all the time, so it never prints on the same spot. I let that project for later because I was taking too long, getting frustrated, and I have a lot of bigger projects to take care of, plus none of my coworkers is designers so I was hopelessly stuck.

To relax I started working on a promotional poster for a booth at a convention my company will be attending, this poster will feature the words “Win Nintendo Wii” so I started looking for images and even send an email to the Nintendo Wii web site asking permission to use a their Nintendo wii photo, but all I got was an email saying that they didn’t know whether they have the authority to give me permission, so since I have no time for their stupidity I just used a picture taken by one friend of mine.

It was a lot of work to get to the final piece because when it was time for discussion three or four people (none of them designers) would come to participate. Most of the time they differed on point of view about the 3 comps I presented but luckily I managed to take in consideration the good elements of the three designs and incorporated it into one. After a lot of revisions, headaches, and modifications I finished designing the poster. I wasn’t happy about how big the web site words look at the bottom but my speech about hierarchy didn’t convince my boss, he wanted it big and he kinda got his way.

Wednesday march 5^th was my first day at work, the day when pretty well it was a little tedious because I had to go thru a whole orientation process plus, I have to fill out a bunch of forms including the goal sheet provided by Jenn. Redesigning existing logo and cd cover as well as updating their web site and designing a power flash presentation are between goals I set together with my supervisor. They also asked me to prepare a task activity schedule, meaning that I have to think about how much time I would take to create the projects and set the due days. Some of the projects I have no idea how long I would take to complete, but I will take Jenn’s advise and overestimate so when they see I finished sooner the will be impressJ Anyway, I hope I finish all the projects on time. Finally, the show me my office which is one of the 2 conference rooms, its huge and have a projector, so much space for a tiny thing like me lol. They also gave me a laptop (by the way, I can’t believe how difficult is for me to type on a laptop), connect me to the network, gave me a password to access the files that I need this file is conveniently named “_for Benny” how cool is that???? Well, they probably did it so I don’t have to bug them every time I need a file.

Friday march 7^th was my second day, my task was to recreate existing logo, the provided me with the hex colors and one of the fonts, anyway I have to play around with the kerning and tracking so the letters would match the scan of the existing one which was pretty tricky. What took me the longest was to find a typeface similar to the slogan below the logo, later I found out that it was absolutely Arial italic and that I have to slant it a little bit more to match perfectly but I could not figure out the best way to do this in Illustrator. I don’t have much experience on illustrator but I chose to use it this time instead of photoshop because I want to challenge myself a little bit and I know illustrator is best to create logos. Thankfully, at the end of the day my boss congratulated me for doing such a good job.

So I got the job at the only place I interviewed. The company has nothing to do with ad or web design but they certainly need help with marketing material and updating their web site. They are not sure what exactly I’m going to be working on, which makes me a little nervous because I always like to know what I’m getting myself into ahead of time so I can prepare for it. Another think that makes me nervous is that when I went to the interview they showed me a design done in macromedia freehand I’ve never used this program before, so hopefully they have the creative suit too. I will start on March 5^th, I’m exited about it but I still don’t know whether if being the only designer in the company is an advantage or a disadvantage. What do you guys think???

So I enrolled in CAT275 Practicum of Communication Arts Technology, for this class where are required to get a job in the graphic design field and the gold is to get real work experience.

Well I applied for six internship positions. All of these positions are somehow related to graphic and web design.

One of those companies is not able to take interns a time but the creative director was nice enough to offer me an interview and a tour around the agency, so I look forward to meet him in a week. I think this is a good opportunity to see how the work agency environment is like. Another one, I called, left the message, and nobody has even bother in calling me back… so I’m so over it.

Another one, I called and the guy in charge told me he would review the resumes the following week and that following week I got an email from him telling me the same thing he told me the week before, so that left me a little bit confused.

Another one, posted the internship description and then decided they didn’t need interns in graphic design but just video, so that was a little disappointing because that was the one I really was going for.

One of them I don’t even remember if I called to confirm they receive my resume, so I’m calling tomorrow to see what’s up.

I absolutely got an interview for one of the positions I applied for but I’m not sure if that’s the right position for me. Anyway they have 2 more interviews set up for this week with two other candidates so let’s see what happens

Benny Davis