The Final Piece

This internship has been an awesome experience over the summer, and it's hard to believe that it's almost officially over. I will admit there were some days that would drag on without anything to do other than wish I could be outside, but I feel like that will still happen to anyone as they grow up and dont want to be working on the nice summer days. Even though there were some days without anything to do, the days where I DID have work would keep my head spinning all day long. Sometimes even into the evening. Just constantly thinking of the project and how I could make this or that work, or planning something entirely different. I feel like this internship has given me a pretty good taste of what it would be like in the real job industry of a graphic designer, and all the challenges they face.

When I was interviewed for the internship, Tyler and the CTH crew were pretty new to the whole idea of what a graphic designer could even do for them. This gave me a lot of creative freedom which could be a good and bad thing at the same time. I learned that communicating your point through is very important when talking about design work, but making sure that your supervisor or client understand what you're talking about exactly. Also, making sure that they get their own opinions in at the same time. Even though Tyler and I didn't always understand each other completely, we managed to get the message through to each other and come up with designs that he and the company were happy with. Some of the projects that I worked on myself and with Tyler, Matt, and Nicole were the 3D rendering designs, promotional ads, presentation package design work, magazine layouts, and photography work. I really enjoyed getting to work with other interns, as well. Working in a team can have its ups and downs, but Matt, Nicole, and I worked very well together over the entire summer.

I feel like I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience with this internship. I've also gained a lot of knowledge about the house building and oil rigging industries. Gaining an understanding of how both of these companies operate on their own and with each other is very impressive to say the least. You dont just learn about how you to improve your skills in your intership, but also how the place you are interning at improves the lives around it. Not to go all Hallmark or anything, but finding out that the work you did as an intern, whether it was very little or a lot, will be used by that company and they will appreciate it in the long run. I am very grateful to Custom Touch Homes for giving me this opportunity, and I will take what I've learned here and use it for the future.

Presentation Packages and Things

With my fianl week as an intern, I've been switching projects left and right. I've been researching presentation package designs by other companies to get an idea of what I should start off with. Along with Tyler's ideas and my own, I've come up with a template that will work with all of the companies they would like to present to. It's pretty simple looking, but it gets the point across and that's what we're going for in the long run. I've created options pages and agreement pages for a package presentation for at least 5 different oil rig companies we're trying to settle with down in Texas. There are still some final touches that need to be worked on, but that's where I'll need Tyler's input on them.

Priority Oil company executive options page

All Oilfield Accomidations reservation sheet

Like I said before, working on the designs for all of these packages has me running back and forth, because not all the companies will be getting the same deals. I'll have to go in and tweak them so they fit the right company and their needs. I do have some spare time to myself when Tyler doesn't ask me to work on the packages. I started to mess with logo designs for the company, because Tyler was telling me one day that he really hated their logo. I haven't come up with anything too solid yet, and it's really just a little side project that I've been doing on my own time. I'm still taking photos of the Dakotafest and State Fair houses. The Dakotafest house is coming along nicely, and finally got drywall put in! State Fair has made some major improvement, as well. Won't be long before they're ready for the docks and then off to their events.

Drywall is in the Dakotafest house

State Fair house is moving up and over

I have learned a lot since I've been at Custom Touch Homes. I feel like I've gotten a pretty good feel for what it would actually be like designing/working with a client or a company, and all the accomplishments AND headaches that can come with the job. Even though some of the work I did could be considered pretty simple I feel like my skills have improved and will keep improving as I work with others in the future. I've also learned a lot about the housing business and oil rigging companies that we're involved with, and it's a pretty intense feeling to know that you were involved in helping grab the attention of those companies so that CTH could expand their image across the country. CTH also decided that they would keep me on full-time until school would start since we arent exactly finished with promotions and other projects. I'm very grateful for the opportunity that CTH has given me and I will always keep all the work I've done for them in mind as I move up in my career.

Keep it Moving

Not much of my work has changed this week. When I have spare time, I work on the promotional ads for Dakotafest and State Fair houses. Until I get the final renders of both houses I'm kind of at a stand still with those ads. Once again my photography skills came into play when I was asked if I would take photos of all the salesmen, other staff members, and a group shot of the crew for our new upcoming magazines and website use. I'll have to admit, I can understand how a school photographer feels when kids dont listen or pay attention when they ask them to sit still or "look this way." Keep in mind this is me taking, or trying, to take pictures of adults. Lets just say it was a fun and interesting experience.

I'm still taking progress photos of the Dakotafest house at the begining and ending of ever week. As of right now, most of the pictures I take look about the same to anyone who isn't able to tell the difference, but I can tell you that there are major changes to the inside. However, they've started working on the State Fair house! The boys in the plant have fallen behind just a tad, so they're kicking it into overdrive and working a lot harder to get both of these houses up and out the door in time for both events.

State Fair house has entered the race

Two of our top supervisors, Jeff and Jerry, were down here on Thursday going over a bunch of different things with Tyler, the salesmen, and our intern group. So imagine everyone running around this place with their heads cut off, and that's about what the atmosphere was like. Tyler started talking to Nicole Ramstad and I about coming up with a presentation/package design for some of the companies they would be presenting all of the different options we can provide them when it comes to lodging. After getting opinions from all of us, including Jerry, we decided that I would create a folder “package” for when presenting all of the options to the future workers, and to higher up employers. I will also start working on a presentation “package” layout for the more one on one discussions between us and companies down in Texas. 

Options page layout for presentation package idea

This week has been pretty on and off with knowing what I'm going to be working on. Now that I have this presentation package to work on I'd say I'll stay pretty busy for now. Who knows what else will get thrown at me next week.

Touch Ups and Promotions

I started to work on our actual housing 3D models this week instead of just the Texas models. Tyler wanted me to give them a more realistic look that would be more appealing to the eye. As I did with the Texas lodges, I would add some trees and a new sky background to the render. However, with it trying to look like an actual house I started to play around with shrubs and flowers to see if that would help with the overall look.

Visitor center house render with landscaping

The shrubs worked out very well for most of the houses I tested them with, but the flowers were a bit more challenging. It was almost impossible to find flowers that would work when being photoshopped into the render. So Matt and I decided that we'd have to go through his 3D program and work a bit more with the landscaping in there. I also had to touch up the Texas renderings, once again. I'm sure by the time I'm officially done with my internship we wont have to ever touch those renderings again. I have also started working on promotional ads for Dakotafest and State Fair. We'll be featuring houses at both of these events, and Tyler has wanted me to start working on templates for promotional ads for now and future references. I've started on a Dakotafest ad, but it's pretty rough since we don't have a lot of content made up for it yet. 

Rough template design

Like I said, it's pretty raw so far and will be open for a lot of changes if needed, but at least I have a starting point. The 3D model image at the top and in the ad is a rendering of the actual Dakotafest house that's being built in the plant right now. I have also been taking progress pictures of the Dakotafest house as it's being built from the ground up. 

Dakotafest house in progress

Other than all the promotional ads and renderings its been pretty quiet this week. From day one, I've been using Tyler's personal Mac laptop as my "work laptop." He never really used it for anything but a spare computer so I've become it's temporary owner this entire time. It's a little intimidating to use someone else's personal computer, but so far I've only had few issues with it. Tyler never really used his Mac for much so when I started downloading Adobe programs onto the computer and using mulitiple softwares at once, this little Mac was having issues keeping up with me. Matt and I decided to have Tyler move most of his personal stuff onto a few external drives, just in case. Surprisingly this proved a little more difficult than it should've been. After a day of mild temper tantrums from the Mac, major file sorting, and my patience being completely tested we finally got Tyler's files moved and the Mac is running a lot smoother. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself! 

Photo Shoot

This week I started working more on our 3D renderings for the Texas projects. Our 3D intern, Matt, and I have been getting closer to creating the final look of the 3D models, but once we think we've got them down our supervisor wants to add a bunch of changes. This means that he and I have to go back to the renderings, tweak them, and then I have to redo the final photoshop touches. I'm starting to understand what it would actually feel like at a real job when a client keeps changing their mind and asks you to come up with something different. This basically means in a nice way that they want you to start all over. However, it is good practice for me to really improve the design look so the renders look as "real" as they can.

Standard Lodge: getting closer to being finished

Executive Lodge: added decks to the newest renders

I completed the final design of the Bay City, TX flyer this week. Just like with the renderings, I was asked multiple times to redo sections ,if not entire flyer, over again. I was pretty happy when I sent the my supervisor the last email asking if he approved of the design, and being able to officially save the design one last time. It's a fairly basic flyer, but that's what we were going for. Short, sweet, and to the point.

The final design for Bay City, TX flyer

To finish up my week at CTH, our 3rd intern, Nicole Ramstad, and I drove down to the head office in Mitchell to go out with KSFY, and do a photo shoot of homes previously built by CTH. KSFY was taking footage of the 10 houses for a commercial they were going to put together for CTH. I was asked by my supervisor, who knew I had a photo minor, to go with them and take some photos of the houses they would be shooting. He wanted to use the shot for our Facebook page, and other references. He also sent some of my photos over to KSFY just in case they would want to use them for anything, as well.

On site with KSFY, Tyler, and Nicole

It was really exciting to get the chance to actually use my other skills as a photographer, and help show off the true quality of CTH housing. People can be a little misled by the quality of a house that is built indoors, and completed within 28 days. They can get that mindset that it's something "Made in China" and will be made out of poor quality. However, I can personally say that these houses are far from that, and especially when they are placed in their permanent locations. I also noticed that a lot of the homes would add a deck, or some other special feature to create a more personal touch to the house.

One of the completed CTH homes I took photos of.

Custom Touch Homes

Hi, I'm Nicole Jurrens. My first week of my internship I was discussing with my supervisor, Tyler Jones, what he would have me all doing there. After we discussed everything, my main job title became Graphic Designer/Marketing Assistant. I would be working on creating graphics, magazine layouts, promotional ads, 3D renderings, taking photos around the plant, and other odd jobs.

Bay City, TX flyer rough draft

One of my first jobs was to come up with a promotional flyer for our Bay City, TX oil rigging company that CTH would be providing housing for the workers and exectutive members of the companies that would possibly want to live onsite. This is only the rough draft version of what I had come up with, because they already had a flyer created for Snyder, TX and wanted me to sort of go off of that flyer to begin with.

Standard lodge 3D rendering/edited

Another job that I was told about is that I would be working with another intern on 3D renderings. Thankfully, it wasn't my job to do the 3D renderings, because I'm pretty rusty with 3D. My job was to take the renderings, and make them look more realistic. So originally there was just the house, but after I put it through Photoshop, I added a new background, trees, and a few pieces of landscape. Our supervisor was thinking about trying to add a few more elaborate items to the final shot, but I convinced him that we wouldn't to clutter the image by putting a bunch of useless items in one image. The point of the render is so that the future tenants/workers would get a better idea of what they would be living in.

Actual Standard lodge getting ready to be sent to Texas

In my spare time, I've been asked to take photos around the plant, and of anything and everything that we could possibly use for future references for the company.