Illustration Practice MFA at AARP

My journey with AARP began when I was actively searching for internships in publication design. I discovered the opportunity through a faculty member who taught designing for a diverse and mature audience. I secured the internship after a competitive application process, which included a phone call and an interview that tested my design sensibilities and understanding of AARP's audience.

My primary responsibilities included working on layouts for the upcoming issues of AARP's magazine, creating branding assets, assisting in preparing presentations, and providing support for social media campaigns. I was deeply involved in the conceptualization to final production stages of several key layouts, which taught me the intricacies of publication design in a real-world setting. I am most proud of a layout design I created for a feature article in the magazine. I’m eager to see the response of the readers.

The most important thing I learned was the significance of empathetic design – creating with an understanding of and sensitivity to the audience’s perspective. I acquired new skills in advanced layout design, typography, and digital publishing tools. My proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign and Photoshop, improved significantly.

This internship has been instrumental in clarifying my career goals. It reinforced my passion for publication design and my desire to work in a creative role that has a meaningful impact on its audience. It also opened my eyes to the vast potential and responsibility that comes with designing for diverse demographics. It was an opportunity to contribute to meaningful projects and grow both professionally and personally. 

MICA RCCE E/Studio Internship

I was thrilled when my advisor introduced me to the RCCE E/Studio Internship that aligned perfectly with my interests in business and entrepreneurship. I quickly began preparing my application and polishing my portfolio to showcase my skills and passion for the field. This internship is eligible for credit which was another aspect that made it an ideal fit for my academic goals. It also provides hands-on experience and knowledge that will undoubtedly shape my future career in the business world, and I was eager to seize this opportunity to learn and grow. 

The Executive Creative Director at Andre Bean Brand served as our internship director at the RCCE E/Studio Internship. Throughout my time under his guidance, I gained insights into the world of marketing, drawing from his wealth of real-life experiences. The knowledge and personal stories he shared with us proved to be incredibly valuable resources, as they are not typically accessible within the confines of a traditional school setting. I deeply appreciated our director’s adept leadership skills, as he skillfully directed our team, fostering a collaborative and productive environment. Thanks to his mentorship, we were able to successfully tackle tasks for our clients and I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned from such a seasoned professional. I will carry the lessons I learned from him throughout my career in business and entrepreneurship. 

During my internship, I had the opportunity to take on significant responsibilities for both Oopsduck and ORA the Brand website deliveries. As a lead, I devoted much of my time to crafting engaging and user-friendly UI/UX designs for both projects, ensuring a seamless online experience for their audiences. Additionally, I contributed my photography skills to enhance ORA the Brand's visual appeal. Moreover, I collaborated closely with others, offering my insights and ideas for the motion graphics used in Oopsduck's captivating intro video. Being involved in these diverse aspects of the projects allowed me to gain hands-on experience and strengthen my skill set, making this internship an incredibly fulfilling and enriching experience. I am grateful for having had the chance to begin my professional journey at RCCE E/Studio and am enthusiastic about continuing to grow and thrive in the business and entrepreneurship realm.

J4D

The place where I conducted the internship was a small company called J4D. Like other advertising companies, J4D was a company that designed advertisements for clients' specific needs or requests. We worked together as a team with one set of values called “We make big waves.” This means that the advertisements we make cause big waves and make a difference in the world.

My direct supervisor was the CEO of J4D. He provided me with enough opportunities to learn the overall company flow and work so that I could adapt well to the company, and those efforts made me able to complete a successful internship thanks to him. During the internship, as a member of the design team, I participated in the process of designing and producing advertisements for various domestic and foreign client companies such as Nike, Porsche, Yuserin, Goose Island, and Innisfree. The company was separated into a planning team and a production team but often the work was carried out as one team. I worked on the production team, and I participated in everything from the idea process to filming and editing the finished advertisement.

The proudest time during the internship was when my ideas and the videos I edited were shown to the public through various media such as TV, YouTube, and movie theaters. No matter how good the idea was while producing the advertisement, there were times when the idea had to be re-invented according to the client's requirements, and many modifications had to be made during the production process and even after the production. These processes were endless and painful, but the satisfaction of seeing them in various media after production made me forget those times.

Through this internship, I learned that communication is very important. And of course, I've learned that you have to have creative thinking, you have to have the ability to handle the tools that can create it, but communication has to take precedence over all of this. The process of creating advertisements is a cycle of communicating with clients, team members, and supervisors. If one of these doesn't work out well, a project won't be completed. I thought creative ideas were the most important thing for designers, but this internship gave me a new perspective on my job as a designer.

Wray Ward

When searching for a summer internship in the United States, I knew I was going to be staying in North Carolina. I was looking to work for a marketing agency, so I found one in the area and applied to Wray Ward’s FORM internship. FORM is a paid, 10-week, full-time summer internship where you’ll work on real projects with eight other interns. I was accepted into the program and I had a great host family let me stay with them for the duration of the internship. 

Wray Ward is a full-service agency creating inspired marketing solutions for brands in the home and building categories based in Charlotte, NC. My direct supervisor during my time there was a motion and design director at the agency.

My responsibilities at the agency were to help with my assigned department’s projects. I created short logo animations and primarily created promotional videos for a non-profit visual arts organization called Charlotte Art League. For our campaign with Charlotte Art League, we created a marketing communications plan and a visual campaign to increase awareness in the Charlotte area and effectively communicate everything Charlotte Art League does and offers. We also created videos for this campaign. As a videography intern, I was mainly in charge of these.

I am proud that I was able to work on real client projects for this internship. My biggest takeaway would be how to work in a team. We had a total of nine interns, and we often had to collaborate. I learned how to better communicate within the group and manage my time. Additionally, I learned how to set up lighting and use Premiere Pro at the internship.

Through this internship, I have become more confident but also realize that I need more experience in marketing agencies and design studios to achieve my long-term goal. One day, I want to create my own successful design company in Korea.

 

Cleveland Metroparks

This summer, I was fortunate to serve as a brand and creative services intern at the Cleveland Metroparks. The parks system has received the National Gold Medal for “best in the nation.” It includes 18 reservations or parks, golf courses, and a zoo as well as several other properties. Their mission is to protect nature, connect communities and inspire conservation in our world.

I became aware of the internship opportunity after spending a day with the Metropark's Marketing Team as part of a high school senior project. I applied for a creative services internship role later in the fall and after several interviews and sharing my portfolio, I landed the job.

My supervisor was the Director of Brand and Advertising at the Cleveland Metroparks. As a brand and creative services intern, I was assigned a series of impactful projects. I leveraged my graphic design and illustration skills to develop actionable concepts for the Metropark’s 2024 Calendar, 2024 Eclipse merchandise, commemorative seal art for each of the 18 reservations, and digital marketing collateral for events and exhibits.

I am most proud of the commemorative and collectible seal art. I have created something “on brand,” that will increase engagement with the parks, be scalable to other properties, and highly merchandisable for the Metroparks.

This internship opportunity has both clarified and affirmed my career aspiration to be a graphic designer and illustrator. Additionally, the role has helped me improve in and acquire many skills, including: project organization, project presentation, technical skills with Adobe Illustrator, photography, collaborating and contributing as part of a high performing team.

On the long list of things I have learned this summer, most important is the need to be intentional with my art. I learned that as an artist, I have an important role in protecting and enhancing a company’s brand and reputation. This means that while I can push boundaries with a concept, I must stay true to my client’s brand and brand guidelines. That said, I must also maintain energy, optimism and belief in my concepts which conveys to my clients, it’s an overall balancing act.

The Syndicate

 

The Syndicate is an entertainment marketing agency that focuses on musicians and comedians. They also work in radio promotion. I was working with Dismiss Yourself, an independent record label and one of the people I was working with posted a link to the internship. I applied for the position and did an interview after my application went through. My supervisor was in charge of the design department in the Syndicate. She oversaw the design team and works with the marketing team to make sure that they create compelling work that fulfils The Syndicates' and clients' criteria.

My responsibilities were to work with the design and marketing teams to create assets for their clients. we would make videos, posters, social media content, and more for multiple people. I am most proud of the video I made to promote the Guns N’ Roses Mexico tour, I was also very proud of the posters that I made for the Laugh Button Live. 

My biggest takeaway was that this would be an ideal kind of job based on my skillset and interests, but it could be potentially difficult to balance personal creative projects. The most important thing that I learned was how things work in a professional environment because I do similar work with independent labels and musicians. I learned more about how the music industry and music marketing work on a professional level. I also learned new motion techniques, such as kaleidoscope effects and lyric videos. This internship helped me to clarify my career goals by showing me how my work could be applied in a professional setting. 

The Compound

This semester I spent one day per week helping out at the Compound, a small non-profit institution based in Baltimore that provides affordable live/work spaces to artists, holds cultural programming events, and supports small local businesses. I have a friend who worked there in the past and got me an internship position through word of mouth.

The Compound has been around for over 20 years and has maintained an active presence within the art scene in Baltimore.For years it was mostly underground, providing warehouse spaces for artists to live and develop their practices. Over time it has developed into a legitimate 501(c)(3) non-profit that actively engages with the community on a more widespread level. There are regular music events held at their venue which fairly compensate musicians, community gardening events, 2 local businesses that use the space and employ residents of the Midway neighborhood, and 8 artists-in-residence that benefit from the below market rate housing.

The Compound itself had a few projects in motion that we worked on together—a website redesign, grant proposal design, general branding, event promotion and email newsletters. That said, I also did work for Phrame, which is an art handling business which operates out of the Compound. I worked on their pricing sheet design, some label designs, and a proposal packet for a major DCPL job.

I am most proud of the work where I got the most individual liberty and artistic freedom. I designed a flier and event signage for the first official concert at the Compound post-pandemic, where I was allowed to be as experimental as I pleased. For this, I modified some code I wrote which auto generated flier layouts and used the same visual language across the board for all of the signage. Because the institution is non-profit and within the arts, they were supportive of my more experimental tactics and overall loved the work I produced.

My biggest takeaway from this experience was the illuminating experience of working in the non-profit design sector. Seeing the mechanics of how non-profit organizations can actively participate and function within communities—and how design can be used to elevate their goals. I learned how to work in a professional environment and communicate with board members to meet the needs of the organization. This experience reiterated my desire to work in an industry that functions not for excessive profits but to work for the greater good.

Creative Capital Shanghai

I learned about this Creative Capital Shanghai (CC) from a MICA alum. CC is a brand advertising company and now it is collaborating with Altavia, a French advertising firm. My direct supervisor was the creative department manager.

I participated in design idea generating, presentation designing and even designed a project independently. I learned how to present my work more professionally. When I was in school, I only needed to think about my own feelings about the design, but when I work, I have to think about how everyone feels about the design, not just from the designer's point of view.

I am most proud of my time management and multi-stream working schedule. I learned about managing my time with various projects going on, and I think designing culturally is the most important thing I have learned. I am also more familiar with Adobe Suites.

This internship experience has given me a better understanding of what people at a branding company do, and showed me the right attitude to have at work. I'm also more responsible with my work, because the design is no longer just your own responsibility, it’s about the whole team.

SONY Music

I got this internship through a family friend who used to work at Sony. She put me in contact with Sony Music Canada director of the office I worked at then he linked me to my supervisor. 

I am very proud of the new skills I learned such as improving my Photoshop skills and learning how to make GIFs. I have also learned how to network and create professional relationships. 

I was responsible for designing GIFs for artists, create playlist album covers, helped with some artists websites. I was also asked to help film for GIFs, videos, and for photography artists. 

This internship helped clarify my career goal and helped me realize that I want to work

more in the music and entertainment industry, but still as a graphic designer.

R/GA

I applied to over 20 companies and R/GA was one of the few that responded. I got my first interview acceptance email on the day of the Internship + Career Fair at MICA, which was the first touchpoint of getting into R/GA. After two phone calls with the recruiter and a phone call with the Design Director, I was offered to be a Visual Design Intern at R/GA's Los Angeles office.

I had applied to R/GA's Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago offices. When I arrived at the office, the first week made me realize why they chose me for their LA office. My portfolio included many branding samples, and the LA office focuses on branding more than their other eight offices. 

The on-boarding process consisted of different workshops and information session about R/GA. I found out that R/GA started as a production company making title screens for Alien and Superman. Then they evolved into a global digital marketing and consultant agency with eighteen offices around the world. 

My supervisor was the Creative Director in charge of the Creative Department and managed around seven designers. I worked on over ten client projects and my responsibilities included assisting designers with tasks, creating mood boards, creating visual audits, pinning up the images from the mood board and visual audit file that I created, designing layouts, creating mockups, and making sure slide-decks are visually consistent by tweaking fonts and layouts to a more cohesive form as a whole. I’m certainly most proud working hard and being offered a full-time job when I graduate from MICA.

One of my biggest take-aways from this program was the field knowledge I gained that you cannot learn in school. I learned a lot more technical skills at R/GA since a college experience is more based on conceptual thinking and theories. With that said, I’ve learned how to use the Adobe Creative Cloud programs at a deeper level and I’ve learned how to use a program called Sketch which I have never used in the past. 


Working at an agency, especially a big one, made me realize how much I love working on different kinds of projects. I would not enjoy only working on one brand. Being able to work on different client projects would help me become more versatile as a designer and keep the work fresh and exciting. I’m super excited to go back to R/GA when I graduate. Having the company’s name on my resume will certainly open up a lot of opportunities to work at other agencies or big design companies in the future.