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the basis of their portfolios and personal strengths.
Their proven abilities and demonstrated assets earned them opportunities to
work on such client accounts as Poland Spring, Nike, and Heineken. As part
of the academic requirements of the internships, students kept a log of
their activities and assignments and wrote
a paper summarizing what they had gained from the experience.
The interns say that what they learned ranged from the technical to the
logistical to the philosophical. Jennifer Poole, from Meriden, notes that
her internship at Mintz & Hoke in Avon helped her at a very basic level to
understand how a large firm operates. “There were a lot of different
departments and a lot of different people, and I had fun going to everybody
and asking which part they did specifically on one project,” she said.
“There were so many people working together to do one thing.”
Vial notes that mentorship is built into the program, especially since
students are often placed in firms where their supervisors are CCSU design
program alumni. Jennifer Poole says that she would start each day by meeting
with the art director who was her supervisor. “He was really patient,” she
says. “He was very open to questions—I could ask him anything.”
But much of the learning came from simply being immersed in the fast-paced,
detail-oriented work environment. Jessica Keller, from East Lyme, was an
intern at Digital Pond in San Francisco. Working for such clients as Johnson
& Johnson, Keller says she came to understand that being creative often
meant being creative within certain boundaries. She says, “My biggest
surprise was definitely how specific branding is.” In other words, certain
graphic elements had to be treated in certain ways. Says Keller, “And you
can’t break the rules.”
Gregory Stein, of Cheshire, whose internship was at Modem Media in East
Norwalk, says, “One thing I have learned from working in an agency
environment is that graphic designers fall at the end of a long process of
marketing.” Sometimes that meant being told to take an idea and run with it,
while other times that meant taking direction from other, more experienced
team members. This kind of versatility and responsiveness was well worth the
effort, according to Stein. “The clients we worked for were pretty
big—Heineken, Amstel, AmsterJam—so that was really exciting.”
The interns also learned that their work ethic, ideas, and efforts earned
respect among other members of the team. Melissa Nardiello, from Waterbury,
interned at Byte Interactive in South Norwalk. Working for such clients as
Skippy peanut butter and Cranium toys, she says that members of the regular
staff were happy to collaborate with her. “A lot of them didn’t even know I
was an intern,” she says. “They thought I was freelance, and they just gave
me things to do.”
The design interns also gained a better sense of what their career options
might be. Notes Nardiello, “Now that I’ve tried both web and print design, I
guess I have more of a preference for print. But I feel like the atmosphere
I was in—that kind of agency—was so much fun.”
Most important may be what the interns learned about themselves. Jessica
Keller notes, “I definitely learned that my passion for design is in the
concept, the thought process that I go through to figure out how I want it
to look that will be the best way to visually communicate with people. The
excitement comes out of the thought process.”
According to Professor Vial, the internship program, which also facilitates
design internships during the academic year, often results in students being
encouraged to seek full-time employment with their firms after graduation.
“Our interns represent us well,” she notes.
For now, the four former interns are continuing to hone their skills and
enhance their portfolios by working for Central Design, CCSU’s
award-winning, student-operated design studio.
— Leslie Virostek |
