INTERNSHIP STORIES

Polygraph Creative is an award winning design studio based in Washington,D.C. that specializes in branding, product, editorial and environmental design. They have a reputation for finding truth and authenticity in their work by fusing creativity, passion and craft into their creative decisions. Due to the lengthy and competitive nature of finding a summer internship position, I sought advice from my department chair. She recommended several local design studios and agencies, one of which was Polygraph Creative. Their website did not list any open positions, so I did not expect to receive a response to my cold email. However, one of the principal designers  happened to stumble upon my recent packaging project on MICA's Instagram account and recognized my name upon reviewing my email. He replied a day later, and I went in for my interview soon after with my physical portfolio in hand. The next afternoon, I received the official offer and was welcomed to become part o...

I first met Cinema Chef Productions at the MICA Internship and Career Fair, where the creative director first interviewed me. There, I presented a portfolio of my work and gave out my business card. After that, I received many follow up emails and a phone interview before I secured my position as an environmental concept artist and illustrator. Cinema Chef Productions is a small production company looking to make a name for themselves through their new animated show, Cypher Drive. My responsibilities were to create environmental concepts and then illustrate backgrounds for an animated short. I was also occasionally given the task of illustrating key frame concepts or splash art for characters. I’m most proud of the environments I’ve textured and colored throughout the internship, I feel as if my concept of color theory and texturing has grown a great deal. Throughout my internship I learned  the 3D program Sketch Up,  how to texture and paint over 3D models, and how...

I found out about this internship as I was scrolling through the website for my school work. The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) holds a strong place in my heart, but I never thought about interning there as it doesn’t have a connection to my major. It was a stroke of luck that I manage to secure it as I found it three days from the application deadline date.  My amazing professors were extremely kind and helped me write a letter of recommendation (I found out later it was my letters of recommendation that pushed me ahead of everyone else). Otherwise, using the 3 days, I asked as many people as I could to read through all my materials, including Career Development and my Academic Advisor.   NMWA in Washington, DC champions and supports women artists. It is the only museum in the world solely dedicated to women artists. They feature a variety of art forms, mostly focusing on contemporary art. The department I worked in was Digital Engagement, this applied...

I found this internship when they did a pop-up show at Stackt market  in Toronto. Stackt has taken unused land and transformed it into an experience  of curated discovery. It’s designed entirely out of shipping containers. I  really loved this space and the concept but was very interested in the  interactive work FILMARTIST had done. FILMARTIST is a creative agency dedicated to crafting innovative and artistic  contents for brands and businesses. By harnessing the talent of commercial  artists, brand specialists and digital content creators, they produce  memorable visual experiences and design. My direct supervisor was the co-founder of the agency.  I was involved in the design process of many of their projects, including  design the 3D/4D graphics of an augmented reality business card. I also  designed a lot of things for proposals like an interactive, immersive  experience gallery space for two artists in China. I de...

I learned about this Creative Capital Shanghai (CC) from a MICA alum.  CC is a brand advertising company and now it is collaborating with Altavia, a  French advertising firm. My direct supervisor was the creative department manager. I participated in design idea generating, presentation designing and even designed a project  independently. I learned how to present my work more professionally. When I was in school, I only  needed to think about my own feelings about the design, but when I work, I have to think about how  everyone feels about the design, not just from the designer's point of view. I am most proud of my time management and multi-stream working schedule. I learned  about managing my time with various projects going on, and I think designing culturally is the most  important thing I have learned. I am also more familiar with Adobe Suites. This internship experience has given me a better understanding of what people at a b...

I had my first internship in the US this summer, and it turned out to be one of the best  experiences in my design learning. Instead of being like an internship, Wix Design Playground is  more like an academy of website design and project management. It is affiliated to  Wix.com, who attribute their expertise and powers to help and educate the young  designers.  I learned the information about this program through the MICA Career Fair. Vuong, the head  of Wix Design Playground, visited MICA and had a brief interview with me. Afterward, I  had one more online interview with another program leader before I was accepted . This 7-hour a day, 5-day a week for 3 months program is actually a little bit heavy for the summer, however, I enjoy the intensity and am very satisfied with what I acquired. During the 3-month program, we are given diverse resources to develop our  own interests and careers such as lectures, workshops, and one-on-...

I got this internship through a family friend who used to work at Sony.  She put me in contact with Sony Music Canada director of the office I worked at then he linked me to my supervisor.  I am very proud of the new skills I learned such as  improving my Photoshop skills and learning how to make GIFs. I have also learned how to network and create professional relationships.  I was  responsible for designing GIFs for artists, create playlist album covers, helped with  some artists websites. I was also asked to help film for GIFs, videos,  and for photography  artists.  This internship helped clarify my career goal and helped me realize that I want to work more in the music and entertainment industry, but still as a graphic designer.

I applied to Google’s UX design internship online through their application portal . My New York office offer was finalized in early April.  Although the hiring process is quite opaque, I assume that I stood out in the candidate pool  because of the diverse design projects I worked on outside of class and my in-depth progress  for my design challenge. During my interviews, I also spoke confidently and engagingly about  my designs. I lead the development of two UX projects for Google Docs and proposed new solutions that  make it easier for users to work in Docs.  Being the first to work on a new  problem space at Google, I wasn’t given specific design instructions . Instead, I took it into my own hands to research the problem area and  discover useful data to identify previously unthoughtful design directions. I also actively  prepared and set up user studies to test my ideas and learn more about user behavior. ...

Working at Pentagram Design has been a dream internship  and a dream summer. Not only was it an amazing experience to be working at  Pentagram, but I couldn’t have asked for a better, more fun team to work in! Team Oberman does a lot of work in the entertainment industry. I was lucky to be a  part of the team that was working on the identity of Space Jam staring LeBron James.  My logo made it to the top two and it was an intense ride perfecting it for the final  presentation. I was lucky that the director and the producer saw the logo. It is a great  learning experience I will always remember. I learnt so much in those three weeks,  collaborated with the team and kept on pushing myself. My mentors were incredibly  helpful too. Other than this major project, I worked on the identity for Words of Art, a card game for  art lovers made by Scholastic for Agnes Gund’s art collection. That was a completely  different experience and...

This summer, I interned for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Media (PCA&M) an organization dedicated to the promotion of the arts. This non-profit hosts an exhibition space that showcases anywhere from one to three exhibitions at a time, in addition to a school that offers a wide array of classes to both children and adults. The school offers a variety of classes, including ceramics, metalworking, screen printing, photography, and more. While researching internship opportunities in Pittsburgh, I came upon a posting for an Exhibitions Intern. I was unaware that the posting was from 2016, however, I was able to get in contact with the Gallery Programs Manager who was enthusiastic about my interest. After some correspondence and a phone interview, I was offered a position as an Exhibitions Intern. I was supervised by the Creative Director. The focus of my internship was on preparing and assisting with the upcoming exhibition, which featured seven sol...