This summer, I have had the privilege of working for a design firm in Omaha called The New BLK. Going in to it, I did not know what to expect and was not confident I really had anything to offer. I was joining an intimidating group of men who had been in the industry around as long as I had been alive, and my floral print dresses and hand painted jeans made me stick out like a sore thumb among their graphic tees and sneakers.
I know it is cliche, but to say I was wrong was an understatement. I had the opportunity to develop my skills in the professional setting, and create projects far bigger than I could have ever imagined. I can honestly say I went into work eager for the next challenge or to continue the one I began the night before.
Here, everyone had their place. There was one person in charge of web design, one video (who was also IT and HR), one accounts man, one graphic focused, one production, and one ideas guy.
One of the biggest perks of this summer, aside from the outrageously strong black coffee, was that I was the go-to-girl for illustration projects. This filled my schedule storyboarding videos like the scene below, creating accents for web and print design, redesigning logos, making gifs for web, and creating CADs for production.
One of the most rewarding parts of this internship was that everything materialized so quickly, and nothing beats the feeling you get when you see something you created in your hands.
For me, that moment came much after the summer ended when the beer can below was realized. I created the design in June, and actually refreshed the company's Facebook page several times a day some days to see if they had uploaded a picture or a status update anytime since I last checked. This fall, the moment came when I realized I hadn't checked in a while, and much to my surprise there it was--my design hit the shelves!
Can confirm, the beer really does taste better when you designed the can yourself.