Illustration Practice MFA at AARP

My journey with AARP began when I was actively searching for internships in publication design. I discovered the opportunity through a faculty member who taught designing for a diverse and mature audience. I secured the internship after a competitive application process, which included a phone call and an interview that tested my design sensibilities and understanding of AARP's audience.

My primary responsibilities included working on layouts for the upcoming issues of AARP's magazine, creating branding assets, assisting in preparing presentations, and providing support for social media campaigns. I was deeply involved in the conceptualization to final production stages of several key layouts, which taught me the intricacies of publication design in a real-world setting. I am most proud of a layout design I created for a feature article in the magazine. I’m eager to see the response of the readers.

The most important thing I learned was the significance of empathetic design – creating with an understanding of and sensitivity to the audience’s perspective. I acquired new skills in advanced layout design, typography, and digital publishing tools. My proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign and Photoshop, improved significantly.

This internship has been instrumental in clarifying my career goals. It reinforced my passion for publication design and my desire to work in a creative role that has a meaningful impact on its audience. It also opened my eyes to the vast potential and responsibility that comes with designing for diverse demographics. It was an opportunity to contribute to meaningful projects and grow both professionally and personally. 

Lucky Jefferson Intern

I found this internship from a Google search. I just uploaded my resume and my personal website. I don’t really remember how much time passed, and then I got an email that said they were interested in working with me. For the process, they sent me something that acted as a test that required me to finish a piece of work, almost like an audition. Then, after my work was reviewed, they would send an email back to tell me if they wanted to hire me. After that, they sent me the offer. 

They are a non-profit publisher organization. They don’t really have a lot of people, the only two people I knew were our direct supervisor, and another one being the Editor-in-Chief. My direct supervisor would give us work that we needed to complete in time before the deadline. She would also give you help if you were to have any problems as well as suggestions sometimes. 

My position was as an illustrator intern. I needed to finish the illustration for their specific work. The work would be an illustration of a poem. These illustrations would be for words or designs for tote bags. I think the biggest takeaway from this experience was working with other students. I needed to communicate with other people and give some suggestions. The thing that I am the most proud of is that my tote bag design was chosen by the clients for a festival. I also got the experience of how publishers work. All of this was very important and helpful in helping me figure out my next step. 

Illumination Mac Guff

Illumination Studios is an animation studio which specializes in kid-friendly feature films. Illumination Studios has two locations: Los Angeles and Paris. The Los Angeles studio does the script, voice acting, and marketing. The Paris office focuses on the creation of the film’s visuals.

When exchanging emails with a previous teacher, I let her know my family was moving to Paris. She then offered to speak to her connection at Illumination Studios Mac Guff about securing me an interview for an internship. I agreed and after a phone call, a Zoom interview, and an in-person interview, I was all set to help out in the Art Department.

Although I can’t say which movie I was involved in because of NDA, I can say that my role was to pitch prop designs, receive edits, and enact them effectively. Essentially, my supervisor would tell me that a villain needs a cane. I would look over the existing character design sheets and color schemes for the character, then research canes. I would draw several draft designs, then make them into Photoshop finals, getting edits for my supervisor all the while. Once she approved, I would pitch the design to the head of the art department for the movie.

I am proud of the fact that the studio is using several of my prop designs in an upcoming film. However, the most important thing I learned was not to get too invested in a design because they often needed to be changed. By the end I learned to pitch loose sketches instead of final products with several at a time so my supervisor had options to choose from. 

I also learned a lot of new Photoshop skills, but most importantly I learned to be confident in my work. What my supervisor and the head of the art department thought about my designs would sometimes differ. What my supervisor thought wouldn't work would be something the head thought would. I learned to navigate these opposing comments.

I was previously set on becoming a children’s book illustrator, but my time at Illumination Studios has made me consider a career in the animation industry. For now, I will just learn what I can and take advantage of every opportunity I get in either field.

Cleveland Metroparks

This summer, I was fortunate to serve as a brand and creative services intern at the Cleveland Metroparks. The parks system has received the National Gold Medal for “best in the nation.” It includes 18 reservations or parks, golf courses, and a zoo as well as several other properties. Their mission is to protect nature, connect communities and inspire conservation in our world.

I became aware of the internship opportunity after spending a day with the Metropark's Marketing Team as part of a high school senior project. I applied for a creative services internship role later in the fall and after several interviews and sharing my portfolio, I landed the job.

My supervisor was the Director of Brand and Advertising at the Cleveland Metroparks. As a brand and creative services intern, I was assigned a series of impactful projects. I leveraged my graphic design and illustration skills to develop actionable concepts for the Metropark’s 2024 Calendar, 2024 Eclipse merchandise, commemorative seal art for each of the 18 reservations, and digital marketing collateral for events and exhibits.

I am most proud of the commemorative and collectible seal art. I have created something “on brand,” that will increase engagement with the parks, be scalable to other properties, and highly merchandisable for the Metroparks.

This internship opportunity has both clarified and affirmed my career aspiration to be a graphic designer and illustrator. Additionally, the role has helped me improve in and acquire many skills, including: project organization, project presentation, technical skills with Adobe Illustrator, photography, collaborating and contributing as part of a high performing team.

On the long list of things I have learned this summer, most important is the need to be intentional with my art. I learned that as an artist, I have an important role in protecting and enhancing a company’s brand and reputation. This means that while I can push boundaries with a concept, I must stay true to my client’s brand and brand guidelines. That said, I must also maintain energy, optimism and belief in my concepts which conveys to my clients, it’s an overall balancing act.

Anchovy Press

During the spring semester, my illustration professor had our class attend an artist presentation of an artist who mentioned that she runs a small publishing press called Anchovy Press. I followed Anchovy Press’s page on Instagram that day and eventually when I was looking for internships, I reached out and luckily for me they were able to take me on.

That artist (and my supervisor) is the founder of Anchovy Press and runs it with their co-founder. In their words, Anchovy Press is “an independent publishing company based in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to storytelling that centers BIPOC experiences.” They publish children's books and family friendly zines. 

One product they offer is the Zine Subscription Box for children. I was tasked with creating the activity for one of these boxes. I created a paper doll which was in some way related to food. Throughout the internship, this grew into two paper doll projects which specifically focus on wild harvestables from Maryland. Inside one of the zines are my illustrations of the dolls which can be cut out and assembled, as well as several pages of instructions and information about the food. My supervisor and I worked together throughout the creation of the zines. She initially gave me a lot of freedom to come up with the concepts for dolls, and from there they supervised and directed me on how to revise, clarify, and develop the final products. 

I am proud that I was able to double the scope of the project, while still meeting deadlines. I am also happy with how complicated my idea was with it still being functional and clear. Working at Anchovy Press has broadened my scope of what book illustration and publishing can mean. It can include games, zines, and 3D art. I didn’t consider the versatility of children’s publications before this. 

Working with my supervisor felt like working with an art director and that was a very educational experience. I hope to be commissioned by art directors in the future so this was a helpful test run. Finally, the most helpful aspect of this internship was working directly with a professional illustrator and printmaker working in the sub-field, book illustration, that I would like to work in. It was very helpful to see how printmaking and illustration can be used in tandem within this field.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

For my internship, I worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. My main project centered around helping out with an Astro-Animation Exhibition, but throughout my ten weeks I also got to work as a graphics support artist. I had multiple mentors for the exhibition and for my graphics support work. This summer, I worked on researching and prototyping potential animation related activities for the exhibition as well as many other graphics projects, including photography assistance, photo processing, logo design, and creating an illustrated poster. 

I found out about this internship in my Astro-Animation class last semester taught by my mentors. They were already familiar with my work from other classes I had taken with them and so I applied for the position, went through a short interview process and got hired from there. One of the exhibition mentors is an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard and so I was given a desk in-person in the office of my graphics support mentors. Despite technically working for my supervisor for the exhibition, others were more than happy to act as additional mentors for me and teach me about the graphics support work they do and they provided me with a lot of opportunities to work on graphics projects on top of my work with my mentors.

One of my favorite things about this internship was the amount of outreach I was able to do and the connections I was able to make all over Goddard. With the help of my mentors, I was able to sit in on a lot of cool meetings with different scientists and groups. One such connection that really excited me was that I was able to meet and interview members of the Conceptual Imaging Lab, the animation team of Goddard. Watching the work of professionals in a field I want to pursue was so exciting and inspiring, but it also made me more confident in how achievable that kind of career path is. 

I’m really proud of how much I pushed myself to take every opportunity I could and put myself out there. I haven’t always been the most confident in my abilities as a professional artist, but networking this summer and meeting with really cool NASA scientists and artists helped me feel like I was really making the best out of my internship.

Cinema Chef Productions

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 to work on a production team. Taking an unpaid internship can benefit you in the long run. Cinema Chef introduced me to a partnering company and secured me a freelance illustration job over the summer. 

Overall, I am very grateful for my time spent at Cinema Chef Productions and I hope that my future endeavors prove to be just as fruitful. I feel very blessed to have been given this internship opportunity and the doors it has opened up for me as well.

Pentagram

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 a lovely one too. I also worked on the extended identity for Fisher Price which involved advertisements, videos, and bumpers. 

Other brands I worked on were Lovevery, a kid’s brand that does different products. I worked on Jopwell strategy, it is an upcoming brand for job hunting and making connections aimed towards people of color. I also worked on Dock 72 Ferry schedule, an icon for League of Legends, storyboarding for Film Independent Spirit Awards, etc. All in all it was an incredible experience.

Hyperakt

During my internship this summer at Hyperakt, a design studio in Brooklyn, I got the amazing opportunity to work with a passionate group of designers, strategists and developers.

The great part about Hyperakt is that they believe in the power of design for good. All the work that is done was for clients who are working towards social justice. The highlight of my internship was working on developing a brand identity for Donors Choose, a crowdfunding platform for public school teachers. My concept went onto become the final option and the entire team worked together to build a whole world around that identity. It was a huge learning experience for me to see the trajectory of the idea grow from a simple sketch through multiple renditions to the final shape it took.

Other than that, I worked on developing options for other brands like MTV Social Impact Squad, WeWork Veterans in Residence. I also worked on creating illustrations and graphics for Zealous, a conference for public defenders as well as iconography for

brand languages that have already been established. Team critiques and feedbacks were so valuable and learnt so much by creating presentations to pitch ideas to the client.

It was a pleasure being part of a team that values empathy as well as hard work.

NPR's Next Generation Radio

During my Sophomore year at MICA, I came across an opportunity to work with NPR as the in house illustrator. Back then, they selected 1 illustrator out of a pool of 280 applicants. I was rejected. Towards the end of the semester, I received an email about the possibility of working with NPR's Next Generation Radio on a project in Baltimore. I immediately said yes but was rejected again. Nevertheless, he suggested that I email him if I would be interested in the project in the future. During the Spring semester this year, I emailed him again which he immediately responded. He offered me the opportunity to work as the project illustrator for the next four consecutive projects. What I learned from this experience was to highlight emails from job opportunities we were interested in, and always email back with an updated portfolio.



The organization I worked in was an NPR sponsored journalism project called Next Generation Radio. We traveled across the United States to train and prepare journalism students for the industry through week-long projects. The common theme of the projects is “First Days in America.” My role was to create illustrated portraits for the student reporters a week before the project. During the weeks in Syracuse, Reno, Philadelphia, and Austin, I shadowed all the interviews on the first two days and create 3-6 illustrations each week for the published stories.

Working as the project illustrator for Next Generation Radio was a valuable experience. This was my first time turning in multiple projects in an extremely tight time frame. I gained the ability to work much more efficiently by creating original color palettes, concept designs, and compositions. I also developed two distinctly different styles for my work in editorial illustration, based on different deadlines and the various tone of the stories.

Before the projects, I would have never imagined myself illustrating an Iranian scientist who is interested in molecules, nor an Egyptian butcher who is making a positive impact in the community by operating a store for halal meat. Next Generation Radio offers an incredible platform to network with people who work in various industries. By shadowing the reporters’ interviews, I felt an immense connection with the stories that I was illustrating. There are no “subjects” in an interview, but people from different areas that share similar stories with us as immigrants.

As a visual solver and a storyteller, in every story, I always ask myself, “what is at stake.” The focus statements are extremely important in finding unique conceptual solutions. I am proud of my contribution to the team; I believe that my illustrations have elevated their stories, which also help them in gaining attention to the published articles. Moving forward, I want to continue my work as an editorial illustrator. The illustration is not just a decorative element in our lives, it serves a purpose in underlining the everyday stories that reflect contemporary social phenomenon. I want to help people tell their stories.

Newark Print Shop

My name is Sophie Fisher, I am a Senior Illustration major with a Book Arts concentration. This summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern with the Newark Print Shop, a grass roots non-profit printmaking studio based in Newark, NJ, a vibrant urban city close to Manhattan. Its facilities are open to an entire community of artists, and according to their mission statement, has “the focus on supporting the fine art of printmaking by providing an affordable and accessible workspace for everyone, as well educational programming through classes and workshops.”

As the summer approached and I was searching for internship opportunities, I recalled my connection to Lisa Conrad, the Executive Director and founder. She had previously worked as a teacher when I was a senior in high school. I attended Print Club back in 2015, a weekly Wednesday night gathering, where artists of all levels pay a small admission to access to the screen-printing facilities and equipment for the night. An internship would be the perfect opportunity for me to reconnect with the shop and to learn the screen-printing process. After reaching out with a letter of inquiry to Lisa, she quickly got back to me with enthusiasm, stating that the print shop would love to have me as an intern for the summer.

My experience at The Newark Print shop has been extremely impactful and rewarding. I was taken under the wing by the management and learned the fundamentals of the screen-printing process. I was thrown into the mix of the energetic, and fast paced environment of Print Club and not only had to learn as I went, but was expected to help aid and teach individuals of all ages coming to the shop who needed assistance, some of whom had never screen printed before. Throughout these experiences, I met a vibrant and extraordinary community of artists, whom I have been inspired by and have made lasting connections with. I also had the opportunity to apply my skills in design and pre-production as I worked on a project in collaboration with another artist, to reinvent the old city publication called The Newarker. We explored different ways of redefining it in a contemporary setting, which included accessing the Newark Public Library’s private collection of artist books and old letterpress type used for The Newarker as research.

Altogether this internship has provided the important skill of screen printing in my tool kit as an artist. I have gained an important connection with the Newark Print Shop and expanded my insight into the different opportunities and paths in which I would like to apply skills in the professional world.