Limonata Creative Prop Up Shop Intern

 During my Studio Lighting class out professor took us to a Prop Up Shop, called Limonata Creative. A Prop Up Shop is a prop house full of props and a studio that people can use for various projects. 

The owner started out in corporate work. After working in that world for a while, she decided to make a creative change and became a prop stylist and created her own prop house.

After the tour, I told the owner how inspired I was from her story and asked if she needed an intern. She said yes and told me to email her, after that everything else fell into place.

My responsibilities included helping the owner with styling the props during photoshoots. Also, during these photoshoots, I learned different skills from the photographers that I meet and even made some connections. 

I also worked with the in-studio photographer who photographed the inventory and uploaded it to the company website. When I worked with him I got a closer look at the ins and outs of photography and gained more experience with photographs, as well as a more in-depth explanation of the business side of things. Through him I learned more about lighting, Capture One, editing, and how to create a payment plan for customers.

The best part of the internship are the people I got to meet and the connections I created through them. I am most proud of being able to take a set forward into my career and learning important things that will help me take a bigger step towards that. The most important ting I have learned is the ins and outs of commercial photography. I also learned about Capture One, which is another photo software that is widely used in the photography world. This internship helped me understand how to achieve my goal of being a commercial photographer.

P.F. Prep Illustration Internship

I was made aware of the opportunity via my professor, who directed me to somebody who was willing to provide an internship opportunity involving the freelance comic industry. After a few email exchanges, I went inside the studio and had a brief chat. It took about one semester after, before I was able to actually get the internship, when I showed him a mini comic I completed.

My supervisor is a freelance pre-press technician, who formats comics, books, posters which aren’t print ready. He cleans up formatting issues, or lettering issues and adjusts space in between.

During my internship, I had other small jobs, but mainly to scan various files in his inventory, which he plans to use for an archival project. Later, I was assigned to be a flatter for a middle grade DC graphic novel at a base pay rate, which I’m most proud of. 

I learned many things such as the inner workings of freelancers in the industry, a new perspective on the lives of such people, their financial experiences, their history I was never aware of in such a small community. I learned a lot about flatting, what pre-pressers are looking for in an artists file organization, and etc.

I definitely feel a lot more secure in my future/career, now having a resource, and people to fall back to when I have questions, as well as a realistic perspective. It helped me understand what I should do in order to be financially stable, and that comic artists/writers/editors come from a wide background, and that I don’t need to limit myself to pursue it part-time.

Barefoot Books - Children's Books // Illustration internship

I found this opportunity when I reached out last year to a MICA Alum whose most recent position was at MacMillan, but completed the Barefoot Books internship in the past. I wanted more insight into the publishing industry and she had indicated that the program was a valuable experience. I submitted my website portfolio, made it through the final interview rounds where I highlighted my improvement over the year within my work, how I have researched the company and what I could contribute to them all while highlighting my passion to make a difference in the publishing industry. I got my offer letter about a week later.

Barefoot Books is an independent children's book publisher based in Concord MA whose mission is to publish books that open kids' hearts, minds and worlds. There is a strong encouragement and advocacy for more representational diversity and educational concepts within the books they publish.

My responsibilities included designing graphics for marketing and promotions, along with printing out advertisements. I assisted with the design and production of our semi-annual catalog, designs for new books and products, and editorial work. Projects I worked on consisted of marketing sell sheets, social media graphics, product trailering, updated design of book reprints, and initial interior layouts.

I am proud of being able to keep up with the fast-paced nature of the work and being able to level up in the projects I was allowed to take on in a short time period. I was able to successfully showcase and grow my skills on art-direction and have the last project I took on to exhibit those strengths. My biggest take-away and thing I learned was how to conduct myself professionally when I advocate for myself, projects I want to take part of, and raising concerns that improve quality of work (illustration or representation). I feel like I got a good insight on what it is like to work in children’s publishing and all the parts it takes to make sure that a title goes out into the world. I really enjoy the atmosphere and how easily I can track how other departments are doing. I also like the routine work and appreciate the flexibility of hours. I can see myself continuing in the publishing industry as a day job and see my practice of illustration adapted in my off hours.

Wide Angle Youth Media (WAYM) // Graphic Design Internship

I found out about this internship opportunity through the junior pin-up which was held by the Graphic Design department for juniors. I was approached by a senior designer at Wide Angle Youth Media (WAYM). We talked briefly about my work and they told me that they was interested in my work and we had discussed a potential internship opportunity. They emailed me, and I eventually accepted the offer.

WAYM is a Baltimore Youth-based organization whose mission is to make space for creativity and instill confidence in young people, supporting them to navigate school, career, and life. Within WAYM is a design studio with young designers, and they mostly take on local work around Baltimore. They do a lot of branding and re-brand work. 

My direct supervisor role's was to assist other designers and help them with their directions. I spent most of my time working on rebrands and other branding work and spent the rest of my time giving feedback and helping other designers with other small projects. I mostly worked on some internal stuff for WAYM, a personal project: redoing my portfolio, ABF branding, and a cover for Baltimore Beat. 

I’m most proud of the pitch I gave for ABF Coaching. I really loved my design and I’m very proud of all the type mixing I’ve been doing. 

My biggest takeaway was that no job is “below” you. Initially, I had dismissed working for WAYM because I wanted to work for a more well-known, NYC design studio or agency. I’m glad that I decided to go with WAYM because I really loved the people, I truly learned a lot in a comfortable environment, and I felt like it was the perfect push for growth but also a very welcoming and fun place to work. It’s like the perfect in-between of design school and the professional, instead of the more fast-paced/competitive design studio vibe in NYC. 

Through this internship, I learned how to navigate working with and talking to clients, how to work in a design studio setting, how to mix type in a visually compelling way and work as a team with other designers. This internship made me realize that I do want to work for a design studio/agency post-college, and despite loving WAYM, I do want to be in NYC post-college.

Universal Studios // Graphic Design Internship

I had the absolute pleasure to be working at Universal Studios Orlando over this summer as a Graphic Design and Project Management Intern. I found out about this job while looking and applying for positions on LinkedIn. At first I got an email regarding a phone interview which then led to a one on one teams interview, the day after which I was told I secured the job. 

Universal Destinations & Experiences, a unit of Comcast NBCUniversal, which offers guests around the globe today’s most relevant and popular entertainment experiences. Its theme parks are known for immersive experiences that feature some of the world’s most thrilling and technologically advanced film- and television-based attractions. Universal Destinations & Experiences in the U.S. are Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort. Around the world, UP&R includes Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, a license agreement with Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa, and the recently-opened Universal Beijing Resort. 

My direct supervisor was the Assistant Director of Brand Standards & Project Management in Food and Beverage. My role specifically required me to work on big and small scale projects simultaneously.  I worked on brand books, illustrations, souvenir developments, and other graphics. The brand books were the biggest responsibility in terms of a project and I am really proud of how we managed to shape it into life.

Working with such a large group of people can be really chaotic, especially when collecting information or documents from all over. Being able to really reach out and get what you need from them as quickly as possible while also being considerate of their workload and time is really something else. I feel like I have been able to really learn so much about leadership and what teamwork really feels like throughout this internship. I have definitely gotten a lot better when it comes to separating my own style from what the job requires. It definitely gave me more clarification in terms of the different layers that exist in the form of roles in a small part of a larger organization which we are often not familiar with. After talking to so many people with such diverse roles I’ve been able to really filter out what I might be looking for in terms of future opportunity.