Bringing Back the Arts Blog Topics
Once you are done writing your blog: If you have a challenge that you are struggling to work out at your internship, email or text the program director immediately so you can receive help as soon as possible.
Blog Question #1- What did you learn from your first week at your internship? Did anything surprise you or make you excited? Were there any challenges? Did you make any connections with co-workers? Did you engage in any code switching?
What I learned during my first week of my internship is the work they can cover from shirts, to designs, pamphlets, etc. I feel like this will be an interesting work internship and hope it will continue to surprise me in the best way.
Something that surprised me about my work place is how its mainly a situational time place where work, and projects will be somewhat random and periodic because of peoples request, but it can and might be chill in between projects. Not only that but in asd printing, there’s plenty of self discipline to make sure we properly learn, and know what needs to be done, and in what way.
I fell like I made friendly connections, but showing that I will take work serious, and will do well. That and I feel like they can rely on me a bit more than a intern, based on my attitude, and my interest so I feel like in terms in connections its there and will be improved upon as time goes on.
In terms of code switching I feel like I did a good job considering I had a friendly, and social vibe when it came to showing me around, and such but switched when it came to them giving me work, or instructions, or a good lesson to learn. I will still keep up the code switching so that I can separate work, and socialize like I usually do, but feel like can somewhat rest easy when it comes to the internship workplace.
(256 Words)
Blog 2: Networking
Begin by interviewing 2-3 of your coworkers with the following 3 questions (about 10 minutes of their time). Time allowing: feel free to ask them more questions to get to know them better. Following the interviews answer the questions below for Blog 2.
Interview questions:
- Did you study art after high school? Art or traditional college? Internship or apprenticeship?
- How did you get your first job in the creative industries?
- If you were in an intern in this field, where would you focus your learning during your internship? What is the most important learning one can do when beginning a career in this profession?
- (Time allowing) Is there anything interesting about you that is non-work related that you would like to tell me about? Hobbies or interests?
Blog Question # 2: What co-workers did you interview? Did your co-workers study art after high school either through higher education or internships/apprenticeships? What recommendations did they have for what you should try to learn as an intern in this field? Did they have any advice on how to begin your creative career? Did you learn anything interesting about your co-workers that was non-work related?
I interviewed Danny, and his father George, who did study art after high school in a university, then went to go teach art in a school in mexico while. While Danny was mainly self-thought when it comes to art, so he didn’t study art after high school as his father did, but still is great when it comes to drawing thanks to the help of his father. George felt like an important thing for me as intern to learn was discipline, so that I take things slowly, but learn them correctly and well. He emphasized, and told be a story on self-discipline, (nice story) and the importance of it, and how self-discipline helps so much both in ability, and in working so it was a good lesson to learn. On the other hand Danny told me some useful advice would to be with communication because its useful for both outside of work, and during work. To him it had helped talk with clients, and make progress with work but also outside of work to make connections, and interactions with others.
When it came to advice on beginning my creative career, it was mainly the self-discipline so that progress may be slow, but very useful to make less mistakes, and be better off in the art career. Some interesting about my co-workers would be that when it comes to Danny, he likes to interact and play with instruments in his free time mainly guitar, and ukulele. I found this cool, and entertaining because I also find an interest in instruments, so we had a fun chat (to me anyway) about music. When it came to Danny’s father George, he was like other artists (some not all), where he drew, and did artwork in his own free time, drawing or painting whenever he felt like it and whatever he felt like creating.
(310 Words)
Blog Question #3 How do your actions affect your workplace? Are you able to be mindful and bring a good attitude when you come to your internship? Do you contribute positively?
Do you feel like you have a good work ethic so far? How do your co-workers actions affect your internship? Are you beginning to develop any work place friendships?
The actions that I make at my work space affect both the efficiency, quality, and amount of work we’re able to complete. Not only limited to the the work we do but also, the time spent, and how it affects others from them taking time out of their work to explain, correct, and show how to do what is needed. So our actions are important, hence we should keep in mind what we do, ask and how to approach our work and do our best to make no mistakes, and produce the best wok, or assist in anyway.
I feel like I do bring in a good and mindful attitude when it comes to my internship, and contribute positively because of how when it come to working I do it in full focus, and with effort, but am social, I attempt to be anyway when in between work/jobs.
I consider what I’m doing so far at my work site to be good work ethic considering that I work hard to finish the tasks that are required of me, and make sure to help if possible, or am in between the jobs I need to do. My co-workers actions affect my internship in the way where the amount of work, understanding, the amount of work that can be done during the shift. This can be really helpful, but also can create friendships, and I feel like I do have my friendship with my co-workers growing, and feel like it would develop even more so as time goes on.
(257 words)
Blog Question #4: Freestyle blog week. Write your own blog prompt about your internship, then answer it in 200-250 words
Internships are great opportunity where we can have actually work experience, where not only do we learn how work can turn out to be in our preferred career, but can lead to opportunity for college, and work places to be invited, and begin working.
In my case I’m working at asd printing and having actual job experience in this career pathway, and I realized how much my graphic design class helped me out, but also how much every other class has not as much impact but a good amount. I’m not saying the classes are useless, other than graphic design in this case, but how much I already knew, or can contribute in this job experience.
I feel like this job experience so far is very worthwhile, considering has changed my idea, or perspective of this pathway, because of how the work flow is, how much needs to be done, and the knowledge that would be useful/viable in this career pathway. My perspective was originally where in the art career pathway it was designing, and have projects where they need to be constantly worked on because of the deadlines, but that’s not always the case it may be in some situations, or depending on a certain project/time of place but sometimes it can be chill, or where nothing happens but side projects.
I feel like as time goes on I will further learn and understand what, and how the art pathway truly works, the work needed from me as a intern, student, and a future designer. I continue to hope the internship goes well, and further my knowledge in art, and I have a feeling this during this time will be a worthwhile experience to go through.
Blog Question #5 How do you feel like your internship is going so far? What are the highlights? What are the challenges? Do you feel like you are making connections with your co-workers? Are you using your internship inspired project as a creative connection between you and your supervisor? What can you do to improve your experience?
I feel like my internship is going well so far considering I am enjoying myself every time I go, where I feel like I may learn something new and be able to contribute to their work environment. The work there may seem boring sometime but if a workplace was always fun it wouldn’t be work, but I don’t mind doing work that others would consider boring like printing, or cleaning up since that’s something I had always enjoyed.
Some highlights that are present while working at my internship place would be the different experiences, and possible skills that I could learn while there. Not only it being something that I might learn/will learn I know it will be helpful for me in the future. Some challenges could be regardless of how I feel with other co-workers, I still can’t help but to feel shy, or feel like I shouldn’t bother/interact with a co-worker when I need to but know I have to otherwise I can’t get more work to do or give my completed work.
I feel like using my internship inspired project as a connection between me and my co-worker would occur regardless of what happens, since in order to complete my inspired project with top quality work I would like to learn more about the program that I will be using. I feel like I can improve my experience even further if I further interact and communicate with my co-workers about what they do, and see if they can spare anytime showing me new things.
(258 words)
Blog Question #6 End of the quarter check- in. OK to do 150 words this week. Please do an inventory of your hours completed up until now and make sure your electronic time card is updated coming into the end of the quarter. How are you doing so far on completing your hours? Do you have the amount of hours complete that you should have at this point in the internship? If you are behind on your hours, what is your plan to make up the hours you are missing? How are you doing with the challenge of maintaining your intern work schedule? Are you using your google calendar to keep track of your intern schedule and homework assignments? Is there any other challenge you feel the Internship Program Director should be aware of at the end of the first half of your internship?
In terms of completing my hours, I feel like I have completed a good amount of hours needed for the end result but am behind slightly. Since I am somewhat behind on my hours I do plan to stay, or get to my work site a bit faster, and stay longer. Not just that but also do extra hours during spring break so I can not only make up the hours I missed, but make sure I’ve completed the amount of hours needed.
I feel like I’m doing fine with maintaining my intern work schedule, but I do try to figure out when I can fit more shifts during my school off-days since there’s only been one day so far that worked like that for me, and hopefully more days come to work as well.
I am using the google calendar to keep track of my schedule, which is nice to get an notification that it’s time for me to go to work.
Other than what I mentioned I don’t feel like I was challenged much, except for feeling overwhelmed at times barbecue of classes, time management, but hey if you don’t panic a little in life then it’s not exciting, so I was fine with this.
(207 words)
Blog Question #7: What is your favorite part of working on personal art projects? What challenges do you face on personal art projects? What have you learned about working in a creative business? What is your favorite part of working in a creative business? What is the difference between working on personal art and working in a creative business? *(Please read below now in preparation for Blog 8)
My favorite part of working on personal art projects would be where I have the freedom to create what I want as long as it relates to what is needed, and so I feel like that is enjoyable. That and how even if it’s personal, you can still get input since when it comes to art nothing is ever perfect for it can always be improved upon. The only challenges that I face on personal art projects would be when I get stuck on what to do, or how to fix a certain problem which I can’t help but to feel like I need some form of input or advice.
I learned that working in the creative business depending on what it is can be very chaotic, and a heavy workload, but at other times can be really chill. My favorite part of working in a creative business would be the unique interactions, and work related things that may occur, from projects, to creation, or even requests. I always do find this interesting when it comes to the art industry because you never know what you may see, or be doing and it can always surprise your expectations whether its something you weren’t expecting, be it interesting, or boring.
The difference between working on personal art, and in a creative business is personal art is for your own benefit, satisfaction, or requirement/goal for something non related to your job. While creative business could be something where it is required work for the project, whether its information, plan, draft, or even a sketch that has an impact on the job. This is important to know the difference because its like working on school work at a job where it may not be allowed, and where you need to know your prioritizes.
(300 words)
No Blog Next Week- you will need to use the week to work on your Internship Inspired Project in preparation for blog 8. You cannot write blog 8 if you have not talked to your supervisor about your internship project. Make talking to your supervisor about the project #1 priority if that hasn’t happened.
Blog Question #8 :
How is your internship project going? Describe the progress of your project. How did the conversation about your project go with your sponsor? (If you haven’t discussed the project with your sponsor yet, how do you plan to do so?) Did they have good insights into how to improve or expand the project? How does your project bridge what you do at your internship and what you like to create for yourself? Has your relationship with your sponsor evolved as you have engaged in a creative dialogue about your project? Art there any challenges you are experiencing planning or doing your project?
My internship is going well so far, I thought that I would be able to do multiple little projects but it turns out that won’t be the case. My project is to create a business card design, double-sided, using the program my internship place mainly uses which is a program call Corel. I thought I would be able to create multiple designs, but after using the program it feels like I’m learning how to design all over again, but with habits of Photoshop, and Illustrator which interfere quite often.
The conversation with my sponsor about this project was where they didn’t mind instead they were willing to teach me a bit about, and how to use Corel. Not only that but this lead to them also allowing me to learn a bit of Photoshop with the projects that they were working on, since I would be on the computer design anyway so I got new work to do. Designing is something I enjoy so I liked that they gave me this type of work, hence that project that I decided to do relates to me creating artwork which in this case is a business card for myself.
I feel like my relationship between my sponsor and I has increased because I could tell at the beginning they gave me selective work since they didn’t know much about. After bring up the project, and my idea, and why I did the idea I could see the difference in trusting me with work since not everyone can use Photoshop, and well at that but after seeing them give me multiple designs to work on I’m glad that they see me more capable now.
The only challenge for my project would be practically relearning how to design with Corel, but that’s a personal challenge that I can get over in due time. Other than that no other challenge in terms of the project.
(320 words)
Blog Question #9 What have you seen or experienced in your internship that has inspired you the most on your own artistic journey? Has this experience changed your artistic ambitions? How? Have you used this experience to diversify your skill set? What skills have you added?
My experience during this internship has shown me what some graphic designers can do, considering when I think of a graphic designer now compared to before the internship I wouldn’t have thought of one that does work related to t-shirt designs, stickers, and even murals. This internship experience has shown me what I could do if I decide to stay on the path of a graphic designer where I could make stickers, t-shirt designs, and even mural making so I have plenty of options later on.
During this internship some skills that I fell like I improved a little in Photoshop, my painting, and got a skill in having a sticker being prepared, and made. In terms of the design pathway I feel like I have plenty of options, and even more so, and thought about what I could do after this internship experience so I feel like this was worthwhile and helpful for me in short term, and in the long run.
Overall these experiences I had at my workplace was rewarding with what I learned, but also an enjoyable time considering it was serious, but laid back showing my how a designer’s work environment may be. Not only that but as I worked that I didn’t fell overwhelmed, or annoyed, just enjoying being there where I was given work and was able to get to work as if I wasn’t an intern but an actual worker, which felt to me like an actual job which I do enjoy the feeling of.
(253 words)
Blog Question #10 : Has this experience been a rewarding one for you? Why or Why not (keep it positive, if you had negative experiences, focus on what you learned- make yourself look good!)? How has the reality of your internship matched or contrasted with your expectations? What is the most important learning you did during your internship?
The experience from this internship sure has been different from my other internships, where I work in an actual design pathway, and get to see what it feels like to do design and create which was an enjoyable experience. Overall I did enjoy my experience considering the work I had, and what I got to see at my work site like printing on a large scale, and even t-shirt designs. I did enjoy being at my workplace, and had many lessons to learn, and got to learn thanks to one of my co-workers how thought me many lessons that will help me not only later in life, and in the design pathway.
The reality of my internship compared to my expectations before starting, honestly I wasn’t expecting anything that occurred except using programs to design, but other than that I didn’t expect things like t-shirt designs, stickers etc.
In terms of lessons I learned many things thanks to some of my co-workers like socializing, working with clients, improving upon skills, and even some school based lessons. So I have a hard time to decide what lessons I learned is more important than anything everything is but if I had to decide… I think it would have to be improving my skills, which was a lesson where I take it slow and steady but do it accurately so that my skills once improved are on a high tier.
(237 words)
Spring 18 Updated Syllabus:
Bringing Back the Arts Student Syllabus spring 18
Final Portfolios:
BBTA final project evaluation-2017-18 (peer version)
eportfolio-checklist-bbta-2017-18
Internship Overview Example:
Internship Inspired Project Form:
Internship Timecard:
Video Training Materials: