This Week's Recap: July 29–August 2
This was a week full of insightful moments. From brainstorming, to sketching, to designing, to inspirational talks and discussions, I was able to learn a bunch this week and I will be able to further improve in many different areas.
July 29th: Today I spent a lot of time trying to come up with visual icons to represent the navigation that we are trying to implement into Stand Out Talent's website. We are wanting to make this an experience for the user and to make it as visual as possible while still keeping it clean and fresh.
July 31st: Today was an amazing day for learning about, not only important information regarding how to pitch an idea, but also lessons that can be carried throughout life in general. CJ sat down with just us interns and had a talk about how to stay out of our own head when it comes to pitching an idea and how frames (essentially our comfort zones) keep both us and those who we are trying to pitch to from really felling comfortable enough to let our walls down. There were many important morsels of knowledge during this discussion. Some that stood out to me the most were:
"Assumption is your biggest enemy when going into a pitch."
"Own the frame, win the game."
"Person A: You only have 15 minutes. You: It's ok, because I'll do it in 10."
"If your work, or what you do, isn't presented as a prize then people won't care."
"Money is just a commodity but great ideas are what is scarce."
"Have your confidence properly placed."
Thanks to CJ, I will be able to apply a lot of this knowledge to myself to improve in many areas of my life. He stated that he doesn't want us to change out personality, but instead be able to enter a room smarter and to be able to know how to stay out of our own heads to succeed.
August 1st: Today I spent most of the day creating a mood board for Stand Out Talent's website. I wanted to find websites that have a similar feel to what we want to accomplish with their updated website. I started trying see what type of color palette we could use and how it could relate to the entire feel of the website. I also wanted to see if textures would work well with the feel or if it may not fit the design. That will most likely be something we will be finding out pretty soon. Then came some basic font ideas to see what may work well with the direction we are going.
More screenshots of this to come.
August 2nd: Today I was able to get my feet wet again and help Ben. He really helps me grow as a Graphic Designer and gives me very good insight into what I may be dealing with somewhere in the future. I starting to learn how to work faster and work ahead of my mind, which is going to be a great tool for improving my time management even more. The faster I am able to work, the more I will be able to get done in the long run.
Later, we took a little trip and we were able to talk one-on-one and I got to know him a lot better as a person and how he ended up doing what he does now. I really appreciated him taking the time out of his busy schedule to let me pick his brain a bit and just chat. Some things that stood out from this were:
"Having confidence is different than being arrogant."
"Work on personal projects while you have the time, that way you can find your voice (the area you want to be in Graphic Design)."
It's always great when you hear what someone, who is doing what you one day are hoping to do, has to say and what they've been through in order to accomplish their goals.
This week was full of many great things, but I know that there is much more to come and I'm always eager to learn and evolve my craft.