Metropolitan Museum of Art

I found this internship from researching different museums that have graphic design internship opportunities. I applied through the official website and got interviewed and then notified I was accepted.

My direct supervisor was a graphic designer at the Met. In my department, I participated in the process and collaboration in between the graphics, exhibition, production and lighting designers. By working closely with my mentor, I observed the way he works from his technical skills and time management skills. I was also able to learn more about how to prioritize projects based on their importance. Having real deadlines and thinking about the next steps when the files were out of my hands made me work in a more organized manner. 

Additionally, It was really valuable for me to experience creating works that will be installed and printed in real space instead of just existing in digital form. Thinking about how things would look in actual scale, under the lighting of a space, with a crowd observing were things that I would never be able to find out before trying and experimenting.

During my time there, I collaborated with another person on a project to redesign the current small exhibition in the Korean department, called Jegi, in large exhibition. We had to work together from learning, researching, about the show, figuring out the concept of the show, and ways to use design to convey the curators message. We started the process by meeting the curator and talking to her about her initial ideas. From this meeting we split off to develop the exhibition and the graphics. Throughout the project we were always collaborating and bouncing opinions off each other about the progress. I was able to get critiques from multiple people and experience the actual process in preparing a show. At the end of the internship, we presented a deck of promotional graphics and exhibition plans to the whole department and also the curator which was such a valuable and proud moment.

Even outside of my department, this internship has allowed me to learn about the museum industry in general. The weekly education programs and hearing insights from various departments of the museum outside of design was informative and interesting at the same time. It made me realize that I like working in museums and that I genuinely care about exhibitions, the interaction of the institution - visitors, and education.