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 from my first week at my internship is the process of printing for a company or for a brand. They ran me through the order from order placement to the folding at the end to pack and ship. A lot of what surprised me was how precise the stencil board has to be when placed on the printer. I always thought the printer would have its measurements and lock it into where it’s supposed to go but the printers do all that work with just tape and a ruler. It really gave me an idea of what I would be doing when I make my own shirts with them as a part of my project.
The first week was mainly folding shirts since I would only work two days with them but it became easier as the day went on. It definitely became a challenge on the second or third day because they had received a huge order from a church and when there are multiple prints going on a shirt you just sort them out by size quickly. I didn’t know that at first so I had put them into nice piles as if we were ready to fold them and ship them out so it took twice as long compared to if I had known to just pile them into a size not worrying about if it looks nice or not. That day was a pretty rough one for everybody which is how I got to converse with Melinda and got to know that she had the same interests as me in pop culture and even found out she runs a geeky podcast with other geeks and followed their Instagram page.
Since the environment was a chill art working Bodega I didn’t have to engage in a lot of code-switching because it wasn’t a lot of trying to act professionally. It was more of knowing you’d get dirty making shirts so I was able to stay in my personality and not have to change it. I would only have to change a slight bit when talking to Aaron because he is my mentor in all of this and the way I would talk to my coworkers would differ when talking to him. (377 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:
Kevin:
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?
- Yes, 8 total years of college first degree at Colorado instate of art for graphic design and 2nd degree at Henderson State University for studio art. No internships or apprenticeships it was dying when he was younger so didn’t get the opportunity
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?
- I would focus on customer interaction it’s the biggest part of this industry being able to understand what the customer is looking for and understanding their needs and then secondly the art. Having a good sense of humor because even though we’re just making t-shirts it can be very stressful and if you get easily frustrated it’ll get to you but if you keep a sense of humor or get one it can be pretty fun
(Time allowing) Is there anything interesting about you that is non-work related that you would like to tell me about? Hobbies or interests?
- An artist through and through ceramics 3D printer build skateboards try to do about everything creative.
Pickles/Nick:
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?
- Studied art after high school at the University of Wisconsin got a bachelors in fine arts and printmaking. I did several throughout college working with the print department at his school apprentice at Open Press. I’ve had several by continuing to make art and meet people. I took risks by reaching out to people and shooting my résumé out there. Being proactive with keeping resume updated and go for anything you find interesting in the arts. I got turned down many times but I still kept going.
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?
- I would focus on working on all of it. Start in prepress to learn about everything that works with the process. Starting the traditional with sweeping and folding and then getting the experience after with screen printing or the graphic designing aspect of it and working my way up there.
(Time allowing) Is there anything interesting about you that is non-work related that you would like to tell me about? Hobbies or interests?
- Part-time artist and printmaker outside of IndyInk and really loves Halloween.
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?
The coworkers that I interviewed were Kevin, the shops lead graphic designer, and Pickles/Nick who does inventory and order check outs in the back. Both of them said that they studied art coming out of high school and Kevin last a few years more in college for what he majored in. Kevin actually did 8 years of college for his two degrees in two different colleges. Pickles was the only one of the two I interviewed that actually did an apprenticeship with the print department at his school. He had a lot more jobs in the art field by going around meeting people but he didn’t specify where. That was a recommendation that both of them told me to do. They said I should not be afraid to get myself out there and show off my work in order to get discovered. They said that I should take advantage of the programs like this because they had wished they had something like them to make it easier to get their work out there.
They recommended that I try to ask as much as I can about the career field and get as much information I could about it. Since I was working in everything they said it would very easy to work with all the equipment and know how everything works in case I got a job in something like a print shop or if I ever go on to own a print shop. They said it was a serious opportunity that I had and not asking as much as I could would be a waste of the internship. They even helped me with some of the things they do in order to give me a bigger picture of what goes into a print making company and it was really cool to see what everybody does in the shop.
Kevin had recommended that I also don’t look into art universities and should instead look at a major that I could include with art. He said to not strictly focus on art and make it a second interest under something that I could use in the real world. When I had told him that I was going to college for entrepreneurship he said that was the smartest idea I could come up with because a lot of artists he knew went to college only for art. Kevin stated that since I will have a business major it will help a lot when I go on to make my own job with my art because I will have the business background as my main strength rather than art. (436 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-worker’s actions affect your internship? Are you beginning to develop any workplace friendships?
My actions affect my workplace in an important way because I have folded the finished shirts and packaged them to get shipped. This is an important part in the workplace because I need to see that the prints look clean on the shirts when they’re finished and if I decide to send them off the way they are then the printers wouldn’t know that the stencil is messed up and all the shirts would come out that way. If I were to send shirts off like that then the customer not be sufficed with the product and might even affect future purchases with the company.
Even though none of the shirts have had dirty prints or messed up prints I still look for every shirt to make sure it looks good or even sometimes the printer of that design comes to me and looks for designs with me because they saw mess ups somewhere in the pile. I have a pretty good attitude about everything I do in my internship because I know that later on, I will get to the big stuff and not just folding shirts. Aaron has talked with me and has already set up times for me to learn how to print and design on the computer so I know that I won’t be stuck just folding shirts and have a bad attitude about it. I fold as many of the orders I can for that day and get them boxed so that they can get more orders in and I tend to think I box a few orders so it contributes greatly to their work days.
I feel like I have a good work ethic so far because I get all the shirts folded on time and get them stacked for the printers to do back prints or other prints on the shirts. Since it’s been mainly folding my co-workers’ actions don’t affect my internship that much because my work it separate from their work and isn’t crossing with their work because I’m the last stage of the printing process. It did develop friendships though mainly with Melinda because she uses the printer closest to me and when her prints get done fast I usually stack them or fold them fast as well and we can chat for a bit while she gets her next order ready. (392 words)
Blog Question #4: Freestyle blog week. Who have you met at your internship and what is their role in both the internship and for your internship inspired project?
I have met a few people in my time at my internship and all of them have had a part in printing a shirt. From the people I’ve met, they’re all the printers and designers along with the packaging person to ship out the orders. The first person I met was Aaron as he is my sponsor/mentor and he gave me a rundown of everything I will and can do at IndyInk. I worked out my schedule with him and told him of my ideas with my project and how we could work that out. With printing the shirts he is in charge of mixing the colors so they look identical to the colors given to the customers in their example so he knows how it’ll look on the shirt. With my project, he would help mix the colors together and possibly get my idea on it since it’ll be with my design.
The person I met after was Andrea and she ran me through how to fold shirts when they’re ready to get packaged and that’s mostly what she works on along with printing their logo on the collar if the order asks for it. She also helps with mini prints on shirts and has her own little station for it. She could help see if my printing was done well on the shirts since she’ll get it in the end and inspect it. Melinda, Jon, and Keith are all printers in the shop and have different orders to print unless it’s a really big order then they would split the prints among themselves. They would all be great with helping me get a feel for printing my shirt and could print a little thing with each of them.
Pickles is the packaging man and he handles all the orders to be shipped as well as all the orders of the shirts they get in for the customers. He wouldn’t help much with my project because he handles the shipping parts of orders and mine would be one shirt. Kevin is new in the shop and he is a new designer so he would be able to help me figure out some parts of my design and possibly make it easier to put on the stencil. I haven’t gotten to know him much since he’s new but I know he’ll be a really big help to my personal design. (400 words)
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?
My internship is going really well so far. I have mainly folded shirts because that is the only job they have for me at the moment but in the time that I am waiting for other shirts to get printed I walk around and look at the printers do their thing and see what I can learn from them for when it’s my turn. The highlights would have to be working with the printers on the shirts. A lot of times it’ll just be stacking or folding the shirts that get printed out but when it’s multiple projects at once I can talk to each of them individually and see what they need to do and what they have left on the shirts. It’s also a challenging part because the folding station is pretty big but it’s limited when there are multiple orders being printed. The challenging part would be when they all have multiple prints on a shirt so it’s all stacking and when stacking I look at the several shirts for each size and stack accordingly. When all the shirts of one size it stacked you start stacking the size smaller and so on until you reach the smallest size and you stack all of them from largest to smallest.
It’s a challenge because I’ll have sections set off for each size for each design and then I’ll stack from largest to smallest but it would take up all my space because I don’t keep track of how many shirts there are so I’ll just go from the change in printing. This would limit my workspace but when it’s all stacked it gets cleared out really quickly. This goes along with the connections with the coworkers too because when I stack they come to me to get the shirts and I can let them know what’s good what’s bad and if there is anything missing from that design order.
As far as my design for the project I haven’t settled down with my sponsor and gone over what my design will be but he has scheduled a time to do that so what I’ve been able to do goes with what he scheduled me for. For experience, I can definitely talk more with the people working at the front of the shop. Most of my work is in the back of the shop but to get the full experience, I would need to talk with them on how orders get done and how they reach out to customers to get what they want in their printed shirts. (429 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 number 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?
I’m doing really well in completing my hours for my internship. I scheduled myself so I could work many hours during my breaks or days that I don’t have school. Looking at the schedule that’s provided by the BBTA Internship it does look like I’m behind because everybody else started a lot earlier but when I started I did 8 hour days. I’ve caught up on my hours really fast but at the same time, I have a different schedule from everybody else because I’m waiting to get out of school early since the last trimester I can leave at 12 every day. I’ll put in 4 hours every day for about three weeks and then during my break weeks, I’ll be able to put in 8 hours for about a week or so. I’m using Google Calendar to keep track of my work days with my hours from when I started to when I get out. (157 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 my personal art projects is that I have the ability to do whatever I want with the project. Usually, when it’s doing it on my own, I can do whatever with the subject that they give me to do my piece on. The only challenges that I face when doing my own projects are that sometimes I feel like the things I do with the piece isn’t what the person would want even if I have the flexibility to do whatever I want with it. I draw out many examples before I can settle on one style and that’s usually because I try to look at it from the other person’s perspective.
Working in a creative business it could be a challenge for me because again it’s through the customer’s needs and sometimes they’re open to whatever and sometimes they’re strict on what they want and if you don’t deliver then sometimes it could change the business with them. But putting that aside, working in a creative business is really fun and you can see the different styles each person has and the customers like to use the different artist’s styles which makes the printing really fun. Every time a shirt goes down the drying belt it’s fun to see the different designs the company comes up with and how it comes out on the shirt.
With working with my personal art I usually make whatever I like and comes to mind and then make it in a way to looks really cool and could appeal to other people with the same interests. It could be the same for a creative business but it is more of what the customer wants and not what you want. At times they could look at your work and really like it and let you do your own free-lance work for whatever they want. It’s rare but almost all the time they’ll let your style in the making of what the customer wants and could come out looking really good. (342 words)
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? Are there any challenges you are experiencing planning or doing your project?
My internship project is going really well. I already have it scheduled out to talk with my sponsor about what I want to do but I already have the project planned out. What I want to do is make a design for my police academy so it could represent us outside of the post since we can’t wear our uniforms anywhere but at meetings and events. I have already come up with a few designs and even showed my academy so everything is great except the part of talking out with my sponsor. I want to make it with a hoodie because it could be easier to represent and it wouldn’t get covered up by another layer because it is getting warm but at the same time when fall comes, it could be something to stay warm in also. I’m only going to print my sweater out to see how everything would be placed on the sweater and how it would look fully printed and then I would show my academy and if they all like it then I would get a number for how many people want one along with their last name so each sweater is custom to themselves.
It connects my internship and what I like really well because I want to go into graphic design and a lot of what happens at my internship is designing the shirts that get printed and sent out to companies. I like to create a lot of logos and have created a lot of logos like with my school. I have helped out with other senior projects that need a visual representation of what they want to do or represent in the school and worked with them to make a visually appealing logo. Since I still have to talk with my sponsor about the project, we have connected in a way where we have talked about what I want my future to be in a creative business and how I would get there. I’m hoping that once I do talk with my sponsor he could help give me insight on how my design looks and if there is anything we should change so that getting it on the screens is easier and faster to print. I left the design with minimal colors because it is mostly black which will be the color of the sweater and then just white, blue, and a shade of gray. Since I’ve seen how they do the prints around the shop this design could hopefully be easy enough to print in a day or two maybe when I am doing 8 hours shifts. I will talk out materials with them and if I bring in a sweater or I look at the sweaters they offer so that if it looks good I can then get an estimate of how much everything would be for my academy and then get the rest printed with them as well. My sweater would come out of my pocket unless they order it since it is just for my internship inspired project. They have a lot of extras in the shop so maybe I can find one that looks comfortable that I like and then we could talk about ordering more so that the academy could give a business for them too. (552 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?
I didn’t see it but definitely what inspired me the most was the background of the business at IndyInk and how it got started up. When working with the other coworkers it always brought up how Aaron and Dave started IndyInk from their garage. They would tell me stories of how they made the whole t-shirt printing company work from their house and the short cuts they took in order to make it work with lack of resources. From what they worked with to where they are now it really is inspiring to hear because their business is really popular amongst the smaller businesses who want to incorporate t shirts into their own company and look for IndyInk to print them.
It really changed my artistic ambitions because I don’t have a lot of resources myself to do what I love and to see them come out with such a successful company is really inspiring. If they were able to make a business from their garage then who knows what I capable of doing especially in this time. It gave me a push to try new things and see what I can make of it with mixing things such as styles or even traditional with digital art. Since I was able to work with digital programs that I don’t have available at my house I tried to take in as much as I could from the time I was able to work with the artists and use them in a way to get as much information as I could out of them.
It definitely did transfer over to the work that I’m doing both at school and at home because I try to give myself a wider range of different things to work with especially in stuff that I haven’t worked with before. I try to explore the digital art more because I feel like I can work better in traditional form but it should be easier to transfer onto digital since the resources are easier to use digitally. I’m still exploring and hopefully could find better programs or even a better device to work with but for now will try to make great things out of what I have being inspired from IndyInk’s beginning. (375 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?
This whole internship experience was really rewarding for me in every way. It was everything I expected from working at a t-shirt company and the environment to work there was even better. They were really open to working with me even when I felt like I was slowing down production. It was difficult at first but once they passed down their tricks onto me it became a lot easier and faster to complete orders and get in more production for them. I worked a lot with helping them fold the shirts that got printed and although some people may say it’s boring to do that all the time I found really interesting because I would see the design digitally and then would see it get printed layer by layer. At the end I would fold the finished product and to see it go through the whole process to the end which was really fascinating to me especially with my designs.
The internship in itself exceeded my expectations because I didn’t think they would be so open to me working with them especially being so new to everything. Immediately they would show me how layering worked even the digital designs in the beginning. There would be days where I worked in one specific spot and get a feel for it until the point where it felt perfect for me and then I would do it all on my own for my own shirts. Apart from my internship project shirts they were able to work with me and get shirts in for my senior class so that I could sell it to them. They worked really well with me and I think I can say I did the same by helping them in things they needed an extra person with.
I think the most important learning that I did were from the times that I worked with Kevin on my designs for the project. He showed me what to do in order to vector out my images because I was working on a .jpg style program that would make it look great on the tablet and on any website but to actually work with it would make it look weird. If I were to zoom in on my files it would be pixelated and he taught me how to work around colors and edges to vector it and make it look as close to the original image as possible. This helped me a lot because even though I don’t have the proper resources to vector my own images I will be able to remember it for when I do. (437 words)