that thesis better be pretty damn good.
territories
Throughout my experience as an intern thus far – a day hasn’t passed without my technical, organizational, and thinking skills being pushed into unfamiliar and sometimes – uncomfortable new territory. It’s unnerving, exciting, and a bit frightening all simultaneously.
Whether it’s being asked to perform design or administrative tasks – everything is seemingly new. Especially the behind-the-scenes operations in a design firm. From quoting prices on plastic baggies and military patches to answering phones and keeping the office organized – there is always something to do and I’m learning to keep myself on task (something which often proves difficult for me in school).
One of the broader lessons I’ve learned while being here is to take the initiative. Rather than wait until Christopher or Tim ask for something to be done – I try and look for things to do. Keeping MINE™ a well-oiled machine is my job, and I’d like to think I’m getting better as the days go by. Of course, taking the initiative is a way of acting and thinking, something I plan on improving upon during my time here.
1,096 points per hour
So sometimes the life of the intern isn’t so glamorous – but hey… That’s why we’re here. Design isn’t all flash and glamor. There are dirty jobs. Dirty, dirty, jobs. Like tracing the veins in a leaf from a jpeg. Or outlining a topographic map using the pen tool.
See if you can beat my record today. 3 hours of work and 3,290 vector points plotted out with the pen tool. Absolutely no live trace allowed here. It’s hard to say whether I deserve a medal or a speeding ticket.
goals
Before an intern starts their first day at MINE™, Christopher requests that they bring in a list of things they want to get out of the time spent here. I think the request is significant for two reasons. One being that I really value the fact that Christopher actually cares about what my expectations and hopes are regarding what I extract from the experience. Another being that it forced me to really confront just what I feel my time here would best be spent focusing on. Here is my list, with some posthumous commentary added on.
1. Learn to approach problems from multiple angles and viewpoints before settling on a direction.
I feel that I too often approach problems with my initial solution. I think learning to experiment, evaluate and move forward with the most successful solution would be an approach I would benefit from.
2. Learn to be more responsible as far as time management and deadlines are concerned.
No room for error at MINE™.
3. Try to consider the client’s input when brainstorming for a design instead of trying to convince them that the solution I arrived upon my own is better.
One can hope.
4. Try to become more meticulous about completely crossing every “t” and dotting ever “i” in my designs.
Yes. The typo was originally there when I showed Christopher. Maybe this is the one I need to work on the most.
5. Learn to harness the chaos.
Balancing control and unpredictability. I certainly have the latter.
6. Create something lighthearted with happy colors.
Stern Grove bird and bunny. √
7. To contribute conceptually and graphically to projects at MINE™.
I’d like to think that I am doing this.
8. Learn how to work outside of my design crutches and still retain elements of my taste. (Become a little more adaptable)
9. Sit in on client meetings so I can hear how a successful (or unsuccessful) pitch goes.
10. Learn how to properly photograph and display my work.
Soon enough we will be shooting some work for an upcoming top secret project. So yes, this will be happening.
11. Become comfortable with articulating my opinions about design. TALK about design more.
Thursday lunches, feedback from Christopher and Tim, and writing in the blog are already helping me solidify my stance as a designer.
12. Have a good time.
√
not just tea
I started my internship at MINE™ not really sure of what to expect. I knew their work, a handful of the previous interns, and had Christopher as a teacher in my GD2 class at CCA – but becoming an employee was beyond my foresight. Would I be serving tea all day? Doing the laundry? Asked to fix the roof? I’ve heard horror stories from interns at other firms but I kept my hopes up and looked forward to doing some actual designing alongside the caffeine duties (hopefully not roofing).
I’m pleasantly surprised at the amount of responsibility I’m trusted with. Today for example – I helped design and finish two deliverables for two different clients. One being a full page ad for the Stern Grove Festival and another being a series of letterhead templates for another client. I was given the task of learning the iWork “Pages” software, and simultaneously finding out a way to customize the templates so that the client can easily prepare a letter in the software she is most comfortable with.
Not every day is as heavy on the production of course. Some standard duties are keeping the office organized, filing, corresponding through the intern email address and answering phones. But so far – I’m really enjoying the responsibility I’ve been granted at MINE™ and I can’t wait to get my feet wet with some more jobs as soon as they come. The tea here is pretty good too. (and gladly I have not seen the roof yet)
canned social activism
Everything is OK began as a simple project in our design studio. Faced with the mounting inequities in our world and culture, we set out to assemble a list of resources that would point people toward positive action. We launched a simple website as a means of sharing these links. To promote the site, we created barricade tape with the incongruous message “everything is ok.” The tape was first deployed during the 2006 US election, and then again during a massive pillow fight in San Francisco. The response to the tape was overwhelming, and we quickly realized that people were more interested in the tool we had created than the project it was designed to promote. It started showing up in design annuals, museum collections, books and blogs. People started writing to us asking for tape of their own. Gradually, we became interested in exploring the possibilities represented by this intersection of design, art and activism.
Here is what goes into creating each can:
First you pick one of the many, lucky cans to be saved from the wretched future of becoming a container for a Hormel product of some kind.
These have been pre-filled by one of the employees at MINE™ with rolls-onto which the OK tape will be wrapped.
This device (designed by Oona Lyons) is then cranked 172 times in order to transfer 100ft. of tape from the larger spool to the roll that will be placed back inside the can.
Once the roll is placed inside the can, some OK goodies are added to the mix. Stickers shown here.
And buttons shown here.
More button fun.
Once all the goods have been placed in side the can, the signature OK sticker is applied and carefully wrapped around the perimeter of the can so that the graphics align perfectly. (Tougher than I expected)
And lastly the can is placed into the grips of this beast of a tool – where the MINE™ intern develops a healthy sweat and cranks until the can is completely sealed and air-tight.
Victory! Social activism in a can. Use at your own risk.
start/finish
Today was an eventful day at MINE™ as it was the last day in the office for both previous interns, Heidi Reifenstein and Nathan Sharp. We started the morning with some standard intern duties like shipping some Everything is OK posters and tape from the MINE™ site (one to Stefan Sagmeister), and some more creative moments during our brainstorming session for the re-naming and re-branding of a national non-profit. I was really surprised to see how strongly encouraged we (the interns) were to contribute ideas to the pool of names. We all spoke out when we felt we had something worth proposing (and sometimes even when we knew it wouldn’t work). The simple act of exhausting all the possibilities creates the most stable ground from which to move forward. Once we’d dumped the contents of our brains onto sticky notes and transcribed through scribbles in Moleskines – we left to celebrate the final work day for Heidi and Nathan at a Korean restaurant on Polk Street.
Nathan rode shotgun and I was in the back as Heidi piloted us in her veggie oil powered Volkswagen towards Hahn’s Hibachi. It was great to hear Nathan and Heidi reflecting on their time at MINE™, the ups and the downs. It gave me a little taste of what is to come and I have to say I’m more than excited. Seeing the four of them at lunch, talking, joking and laughing really showed me that the interns at MINE™ are treated less like employees and more as peers. It’s inspiring and comforting to see that familial aspect of MINE™ up close. Past interns like Jennifer Hennessy, Emily Craig, Oona Lyons, Dexsy Repuyan and others all have expressed the same sentiment to me – that once you stop working at MINE™ the relationship doesn’t cease with the position. I know Heidi and Nathan know this and that they truly enjoyed their time here. I was sad to see them go – but simultaneously excited for the future and for my own relationship with MINE™, the working world, and design in general to develop in an environment that I know is much more than a paycheck.