For
my internship at Wessier Distributing and AutoBodyNow, I assisted with graphic design
under Lindsay Dykstra. I helped with several small projects to help keep up
with the growing list of graphic design needs.
My
own project was to create an email marketing campaign. I sent out a 3 emails,
on a schedule as well as creating an easy template for the company to use and
an extra email that was not sent out. I found mistakes in each email I sent
out, and changed them to see different results.
AutoBodyNow was
reintroduced to previous costumers though the email marketing campaign. I
reminded people that AutoBodyNow still existed and were a good choice for them
to return to. I certainly helped Lindsay catch up with her list of graphic
needs that seemed to grow faster than we could cross out what we did. In the
end, we had completely caught up to the list and were looking for things to do.
I
used Mailchimp and Photoshop mostly for my internship. I had much experience in
Photoshop, which was needed for every project. I had no experience in Mailchimp
or creating email campaigns, but it is an extremely user friendly site that had
many helpful guides to creating and sending emails.
I also learned, and
relearned, a lot of technical skills. I had to relearn HTML for the eBay
listings as well as the email campaigns. Based on this, I think that I should probably
relearn other coding such as java. I was in Photoshop much of the time and
learned much about the differences in modes and better colors for printing. I
also learned many different sites for running websites such as Shopify and
Mailchimp, as well as better understanding how Amazon and eBay works on the business
side.
I found that the
designing procedure differs greatly from school and work. At school, all the
information was given you and you knew what you had to do. The hardest part was
competition between peers to create something better. At work, however, research
is more important. I have to find out what I am doing and the best way to go
about it. There is no one to compare designs with, but instead the designs are compared
to what is expected.
 |
| Lindsay Dykstra |
As
an animation major, I was not too thrilled to have a graphic design internship.
I first felt overwhelmed by the graphic design side of things. I felt
unprepared going into this internship since I did not know graphic design, web
design, and coding. After a couple weeks I felt much more confident since all I
really needed was basic knowledge of layouts and knowing how to use Photoshop.
Everything I did, I researched heavily beforehand. However, I definitely have a
more positive outlook on this type of career.
