Studio Rodrigo

My name is Morgan Smith, and I am a senior Graphic Design major. My previous professor, Hieu Tran, was an intern and designer at Studio Rodrigo in 2017. Knowing that I had taken on UI/UX in the past year, he mentioned that they were looking for design interns. Studio Rodrigo is primarily a product design studio, and I figured this would be a great way for me to test the UI/UX skills I’ve gathered. Hieu thankfully passed along my resume, and I even had the chance to interview with their team at the 2018 Career Fair. After going through this process and sending up a follow up email, I got to interview with other members of the team to review my work and goals as a designer. Later, I was accepted as an intern in late May of this year. 

Studio Rodrigo is a design studio located in New York that works in various fields of design including: product design, brand elements, and more. Studio Rodrigo does focus more on product design, but has a numerous amount of clients that work in different fields, and therefore need different things besides product design.

My direct supervisors were Khoi Uong and Ritik Dholakia, the founders of Studio Rodrigo. They provided me the background information on all the projects I would be working on, as well as working with me throughout completing these projects. Ritik works mostly behind the scenes and organizes what projects would be good for the Rodrigo team, and Khoi is mostly a designer at Studio Rodrigo as well.

My main responsibilities as an design intern was to work within the project’s needs. I’ve had the opportunity to work on three projects throughout my time here, all varying in different fields. One was working for Artfare, which allowed me to try UI/UX design for administrators of the app. Next, was working on social media campaigns for Democracy Works/Turbovote for this upcoming election. The last project I helped out on was working for Baby Goo Roo and trying different design directions for their next books on life as a new mom.

I am mostly proud of my work for Democracy Works/Turbovote. I had a lot of fun being the main designer for this project and creating work that was fun and exciting for something as daunting as the election. The clientele enjoyed the work as well which made me proud for creating work that an actual client enjoys.

My biggest take away from my experience is that designing takes a lot of time, and a lot of user thinking — especially in UI/UX. At MICA, I am very used to working for the screens and not for the person operating those screens. While working at Rodrigo, I’ve realized the way they work is backwards from what I’ve done at MICA. That being said, that’s one of the things I’ve learned the most, is working in that direction is crucial when it comes to product design.

New skills I’ve learned the most is that you have to think about the user and how they’re going to operate your product in the most simplest way possible. Don’t overthink the functions. Also, to speak up as an designer. Don’t be afraid to show your design decisions and stand up for them! 9 times out of 10 your supervisor and team will listen and add on how to make your decisions greater.

This internship was overall a great experience, and is one where I can say I’ve actually learned a lot. That being said, it really made me think about me as a designer and my future. I’d definitely love to try my hand at product design any chance I get (to build my skills), but I found myself wanting to do more branding related things. In the past, I was very focused on doing product design and making a career out of it. But, this experience has made me realize that I am good at product design, but excel better in other fields of design. For my career, I’d love if I was a designer that had the opportunity to work in as many fields as I can, including product design. But, I no longer choose to focus my career on product design and more on brand oriented design that has the possibility of including product design.