My name is Caitlin Cawley and I am a current graphic design major. The Life is good company is one that I grew up with and am very familiar with. I completed an internship during my freshman year of college at an advertising company. Afterwards, I began brainstorming places I would like to complete internships with; Life is good was one of them. I am a fan of their page on Facebook and noticed thatthey had recently posted job positions for graphic designers. Although there were no internship postings made I still decided to email my packet containing my resume, a cover letter and samples from my portfolio to the contact listed. I heard back immediately, however, there were not going to be any internships for graphic designers that summer. The Human Resources representative included information about an internship for apparel designers and thought that I may be interested. I set up a phone interview with the two designers I would be working with. After the interview I knew for certain that this was an internship that I really wanted, and could learn a lot from. I was soon contacted again to come in for an in‐person interview at the flagship store in Boston where the design offices are held. Shortly after this interview I was offered the internship.
Life is good is a lifestyle brand that was founded in Boston, MA. They produce casual apparel for men, women and kids as well as accessories such as mugs, water bottles, beach towels and dog toys. The products are easily recognized due to their bright colors, as well as Jake, their logo. The company believes in the power of optimism and giving back. All employees of the company embrace this optimism and are very enthusiastic about what they do.
At Life is good I worked with Lesley Potter, who is the Women's and Girl's apparel designer, and Molly Bodurtha, who is the Men's, Boy's and Infant apparel designer. These women develop the sketches and silhouettes for all apparel products produced at the company as well as develop the color palettes and color flow from season to season. As their intern I completed several projects. One of my
first projects was going through the color library to select a blue fabric swatch that would fit with the other colors selected for the Holiday 2013 line. I pulled several swatches and one of them was picked to be used in the line. I also named several new colors being used in the Men's and Women's Fall/Winter and Holiday 2013 lines. In addition to the color work, I also designed and curated several presentation
boards for the company. First I was given a label branding board to design. The company wanted a board dedicated to label branding for the future direction of the company. I researched label branding to generate images for the board. On the board I displayed the best images I found in my research as well as actual labels from shirts and pants. The board was used in design meetings at the company and is
now being saved as a reference. Due to the satisfaction of the company based on the previous board I designed, I was given another project where I had to curate boards with printed images featuring all clothing products from the Spring/Summer 2013 lines. The boards were to be used in company design meetings as well as meetings with companies that sell Life is good products such as Hallmark and The Paper Store. In total, I curated twenty different presentation boards for this project.
I am very proud of the work that I completed at Life is good. The label branding board that I created for the company is what I am most proud of. It is something that I created for both the apparel designers and graphic designers, and is being saved for future reference. I learned so much from this internship. Although I did improve my skills as a designer, I learned a lot about working in a quick paced professional environment. When working in a quick paced environment communication is very important. Through this internship I formed valuable professional contacts that I plan on staying in touch with throughout my career as a designer. Although I did not intern as a graphic designer at this company, this internship opened me up to another aspect of design I had never been exposed to before, and most like would never have experienced if I did not complete this internship. I hope to one day work as a graphic designer at either a fashion or clothing company and I feel as though this experience has only made me a more well rounded designer.
