My name is Nicolas Kubail Kalousdian and I am a Graphic Design major. During the entirety of spring semester I was researching potential studios and organizations I could complete an internship at. I wanted to keep this internship focused in publication, since my last was focused in advertising: this narrowed my options down quite a bit. I have always been a fan of architecture, so I decided to combine my interests and sent out an email to the art director of Metropolis Magazine. Metropolis Magazine is a monthly publication focused on the “convergence of architecture, design and culture”.
As soon as I arrived I was integrated into the design process of the next month’s issue. I had two supervisors, DJ the art director, and Ho-Mui the assistant art director, that came to trust me within a few days, and treated me like any of the other employees not long after that. I was put in charge of designing the spreads for one of the features, Meet The Mayors – Six nimble decision makers, as well as helping out with tasks such as cleaning up existing templates, checking proofs for colour corrections, and stylizing smaller parts of the upcoming issue (table of contents, contributors page, etc).I am certainly most proud of having my name printed in an internationally known publication, and having thousands of people looking at my design. On the other hand, the most important learning experience I had came from the production crew: they walked me through the whole process from design to sending the files to the printer to be mass produced. Unfortunately, this rewarding experience ends in a sad note: I no longer wish to be a designer for an existing magazine. I found that the creative possibilities are too constricting and responsibilities almost negligible. This fall semester I will be interning for Abbott Miller at his Pentagram office in Baltimore. Pentagram is a studio that has broader endeavors and encompasses more fields of design, and I hope to find my calling there.
