My name is Fangting Gu and I am a second-year Graphic Design MFA student. During the Summer of 2017, I was a graphic design intern for the Open Music Initiative (OMI), and also a fellow of IDEO co-lab, in the Cambridge, Massachusetts office for two months. Since I am an international student and I didn't have any working experience in the U.S before, so this summer Internship meant a lot to me. During the spring break of last semester, on a whim, I decided to search "Graphic Design Internships" on the social networks like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, etc. I updated my website and resume at the same time. After a few weeks, I got an email from my instructor that IDEO had a great opportunity to work with OMI on music experience, so I contacted them immediately for more information.
An IDEO Coordinator sent me a response in the same day, asking for my portfolio, resume and a letter of interest. After a few questions about my understanding of music, and after a few emails, I got an invite for a phone interview with them. They asked some questions about my work and my interests; the interview continued for around 10 minutes, and after that, I finally got the letter of acceptance.
In IDEO, I worked as a graphic designer in a diverse team which contain two developers, one businessman, and two designers, all from different colleges in the U.S, and our program lead was a talented adventure designer from IDEO who organized the entire program and the mentorship. The four teams each worked in a different direction, dedicated to generating a whole new music experience using OMI API and blockchain technology.
During the day, we went to work at various locations, including a co-working space, IDEO Cambridge studio, and MIT Media Lab. We researched on our team brief and goal, brainstormed, met with IDEO designers and professors from the Berklee College of Music, interviewed people, and tested our prototype. As a graphic designer in our team, my work basically focused on the branding, UI/UX, and the visual design of our products.
Our final prototype is a new music exploration and sharing platform called "DeepDive," which is an organized platform where fans can view the entire identity of an artist and share the meaning behind the music. I am glad I was able to work with talented people from different backgrounds, and I learned from them about not only just design, but also about new technology and the music business. Working with IDEO gave me insight into the world of design and technology and how it operates. I really enjoyed working together in cross-disciplinary, dedicated groups in IDEO, and I was deeply inspired by their unique design-thinking theory and business strategy, such as Human Centered design. I learned how to cooperate with team mates and how to do the research and wire-framing, which I was proud of. I also left with many new additions to my own portfolio. This summer internship was an important stage for my career, I only wish I could have started planning for it a bit earlier. Regardless, it helped me to more clearly define my career goals and focus on the project I want to do for my thesis next year.
