Ordering the Banner

After weighing the pros and cons, I finally decided to go with the Skyline banner. While it might stand out as different the one time all the banners are up together, I think it would be a better choice in the long run because it is lighter to carry and, most importantly, the material is durable fabric that will not get dented and dinged like the unforgiving stiff plastic banner offered by Lafayette Printing. The glossy look of the Lafayette Printing product was very nice, but the plastic was easily dented, instantly ruining the overall effect. Lisa was pleased with my decision, saying that she would have chosen the same, but that she had wanted to leave the big choice to me, the “project manager.” With that taken care of, I met with Kathy Lantz to get the stock photo ordered, and once I got the image I plugged it in to the banner design and got the file prepped and ready to be sent off. I came into the office on Tuesday with the file and Lisa called our sales rep at Skyline, but she wasn’t in, and wasn’t able to get back to us before break, so we’ll order the banner when we get back next week.

Choosing between the two printers was very difficult. This banner will be an expensive investment that will last for years, so I took it very seriously. The difference in cost was very slight, so it didn’t really factor into the decision. While other departments in the College of Liberal Arts got their banners printed through Lafayette Printing, the fact that our banner would be lasting for years led me to choose Skyline’s more durable product. As a designer, I will have to choose printers and product options for almost every print project, so getting experience with weighing in the purpose of the project and what is most important to the client when making big decisions like this one will help me in the future. I’m glad that I was given the authority and responsibility to make the important decisions on this project; this is exactly the kind of experience I was hoping to gain from this internship.

Decisions, Decisions

This week’s schedule was full of meetings! There was a meeting with Lafayette Printing early in the week, and interviews for next semester’s interns later in the week, and I put in eleven hours of work total. On Tuesday, Lisa and I met with a sales rep from Lafayette Printing to see what kind of banner options they had and get a price estimate. Apparently, the other departments in the College of Liberal Arts had ordered their glossy plastic banners from Lafayette Printing, but they are heavier and more easily damaged than the matte fabric Skyline banners. Which printer will we use? The decision is up to me… I have a lot of thinking to do! I did have a little difficulty keeping the ball rolling in the meeting. Lisa wanted me to take the lead, for the experience, but I soon found out that the sales rep would have to refer me to one of their art production people to answer most of the questions I wanted to ask. He couldn’t tell me about things like the required image resolution or Pantone colors, only about the products and their prices, and since that all seemed to be laid out in the brochure he gave us, I ran out of questions very quickly. It was a little awkward because I had no idea how these meetings usually went, but I certainly do now!

Lisa, Kate, Kathy and I interviewed prospective interns for next semester on Thursday and Friday. We all took turns asking questions. It was truly enlightening to be a part of the interview process and get to see what happens on the other side and what about each candidate really stands out as positive or negative. I also got to be a part of the decision-making process, and choosing between the applicants was hard in some cases, but in others the choice was clear. I think this will really help me interview better in the future.

Lisa has been really great about helping me develop professionally and get experience with different things. Instead of just ordering me around, she and Kate have been actively looking for ways for me to gain experience in different areas through this internship.

Handling Criticism

This week, I kept working on the banner and we interns had separate mid-term progress meetings in addition to the weekly Friday team meeting. I also got an email from the designer of the other CLA banners critiquing my design. She pointed out some specific details that were inconsistent, like one of the typefaces, which I was glad to hear because I was just working from photos and was trying to figure out those things, but she also said that the silhouettes looked “dated” and should be removed if they aren’t adding to the design.

I discussed the silhouette issue with Lisa. I did not think they looked dated, and in this instance they added to the message of the slogan, “professional help for a professional future.” They are the “future,” the young professionals that the Career Development Office will be molding students into. Their faceless anonymity conveys the idea that they could be anyone; a student looking at the banner could think “that’s going to be me in a few years.” They are not just there for decoration! This concept was also a part of why the slogan is split, showing a picture of professional help under the words “professional help” and showing the future under the words “for a professional future.” Lisa agreed that they did not look dated, so now we’re moving forward with this design concept as the final one. I pointed out that tweaking the design so that it could only be deployed at full height would be safer from a technical standpoint and would also eliminate an awkward spot in the layout, so I got the go-ahead to scrap the two-possible-heights limitations.

Handling a harsh criticism from another designer was a challenge, but I overcame the difficulty by sticking to my guns. I had a good reason for what I did, so I defended my design choices, explaining the reasoning behind them and showing that the silhouettes were adding to the overall message. Learning to better deal with criticism will definitely come in handy in my future employment; designers face critique all the time. At the midterm meeting, Lisa and Kate asked if there was anything I wanted to do for a new project that I hadn’t got a chance to work with yet. They’re really trying to make sure that I get the experience I want out of this internship.

The Big Event!

I can’t believe it’s already the middle of November—the semester has just been flying by! The Professional Forum has come and gone, and all in all it’s left me feeling pretty excited. As I mentioned before, we interns at the Career Development Office have been working all semester to get the word out about this liberal-arts centered cluster of professional events. I’ve designed flyers, invitations, table tents, and email campaigns, among other things, with the collaboration of the marketing and public relations interns. Still, after all the preparation, I was feeling a little nervous about the event turnout. Were our emails deleted as spam? Did students just take the invitations we handed them and deposit them in the nearest trash can? Luckily, my worries were proven wrong! The pre-forum presentations on resume writing, dressing for success, and making the most of a career fair were delivered to full classrooms of interested students who each got a golden ticket—admission to our professional networking event the night of the Forum—for attending.

The morning of the Forum started out with company presentations and panel discussions, although these events didn’t end up with quite as much attendance. In the future, I think we could probably promote them a little more; the career fair portion of the day had been given more attention. Other students who told me that they planned to attend the fair generally saw it as the main event of “The Professional Forum,” saying that the other events were more like extra little tidbits. And attend they did! The rooms we booked in the union saw plenty of traffic throughout the day. Polished and professional-looking students were lining up—LINING UP!—to talk to company and grad school recruiters! Some of the recruiters I talked to commented on how pleased they were with the turnout, and even complimented us on our marketing success.

The invitation-only formal networking event was another great opportunity to mingle with the recruiters, although several of them didn’t attend due to illness and other circumstances. I was a little disheartened that the people I most wanted to talk to missed the event, but hey: they missed out on some delicious hors d’oeuvres. And the tie logo I designed was on a cake!




Imagine eating this. Delicious.


You can probably tell from all the exclamation points that I’m pretty well pleased with how things turned out… I believe the Forum’s maiden voyage has been a success, and has definitely laid a strong foundation for the years ahead to build on.

Although the big event is over, we’re far from done with our internship experiences! I’m currently designing a seven-foot-tall banner for the Career Development Office, and will soon begin work on the logo for the spring’s Liberal Arts Career Week and getting ready to hand things over to the new set of interns next semester. It’s been a busy couple of months, but I’ve accomplished and experienced so much… I’m really getting a feel for what designing in a professional setting is like.