As a graphic designer working in the Marketing Department for a university, my role is to edit, create, update, print, and display marketing and advertising materials for the school's various events. Within the organization, I act as a designer and a consultant to printers as I send out print requests for promotional ads, flyers, signs, and schedules, postcards, booklets, cards, and posters. Below is a list of things, by no means comprehensive, that I have learned along the way.

On a daily basis, my work consists of editing documents primarily in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. Less common software that I use includes Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Updating and creating design pieces like email screens, flyers, athletic schedules, invitations, and booklets has given me a new appreciation for the work that goes into creating print media and the individual responsibility of the designer. The work has given me a chance to use my own design skills and personal flair in conjunction with the professional work that is expected of me.

Because my work is largely school-branded promotional material, it is integral that I use the school specific color scheme, specifically the red and gold color formulae. It is my role to ensure that these colors are consistently represented in the school’s marketing pieces. Working with the university's archival system has also been a new experience, but one that will likely be mimicked in the workplace. File archiving is especially important when more that one designer is working on a project or when supervisors want to be able to quickly pull past files and update them.

A sample of my personal internship log shows the variety of work I undertake and accomplish. I write down the projects I have worked on each day, which helps to keep my organized and keep track of what's next. My job consists not only of creating and designing pieces, but also packaging them for print, releasing them to faculty, interacting with printing companies, and checking to make sure that printouts are correct:

My internship experience thus far has taught me a variety of new software skills as well as having introduced me to the office environment of a designer under a creative director. I have worked with a variety of projects, from email screens updating the campus on the latest news to lengthy financial documents. Working with these projects from ideation and creation to sending print requests has been insightful for my future career.