Hello there, my name is Gab and I am finishing up my internship at PATTERN this semester. Starting this entry off, I will admit that I am slightly nervous to write this article. For reference, I am a graphic design intern, not a writing intern. Writing this is a perfect example of how I have been gently pushed outside of my comfort zone over the course of the semester. I got to dip my toes into many different projects and was inspired by everyone’s unique passions.
When I was accepted for the graphic design internship, I was fairly inexperienced, having only enrolled in a graphic design class this semester. Prior to this semester, I had only used Photoshop a handful of times. I expected this internship to be a challenge, but thought it would be easy once I got the ball rolling. In a way, I expected to uncover some sort of natural talent for Adobe Suite and graphic design. I was wrong.
I have always been passionate about art and I have been told I am good at it. However, transferring skills from my normal flow to graphic design was a hurdle. I was struggling to understand what a graphic for a company should look like while becoming acquainted with the holy trinity of Adobe Design applications.
My confidence was pretty low for the first couple weeks of the internship; however, I felt so encouraged by everyone around me. The confidence they had in me was exhibited when I was given important assignments despite my inexperience. The fact that I was trusted to carry out these assignments drove me to work even harder to make final products that both myself and PATTERN valued.
I enjoyed honing in on my skills. Going home to practice the technical skills I learned at my internship was something I looked forward to each week. My entire YouTube home screen was Photoshop tutorial recommendations at one point. Though there were challenges, the additional practice proved to be instrumental. As the projects went on, I saw massive improvements in my skills. I started moving between Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign with ease.
My favorite project to work on was a collaboration with one of the photography interns, Olivia. Olivia trusted me to make a booklet to showcase images from her editorial shoot, Italian Summer. I learned so much about Photoshop through this project and I loved being able to manipulate images to make designs. Another one of my favorite projects was helping Emily, the styling intern, arrange a flatlay for an article she was writing. I have never done anything like that before, but I felt like I had a good eye for positioning everything. Overall, I enjoyed collaborating with people who work in different facets of the arts. Watching all the interns work on their passion projects and being able to collaborate with them was motivating.
My favorite part of the internship was the PATTERN launch party. The launch party was filled to the brim with creative minds! I have lived near Indy my whole life, but I didn’t realize such a vibrant community of artists existed here. My goal is to be able to support myself by making art, and I wasn’t sure that my dream would be fostered in Indiana. Seeing this crowd proved to me it was attainable. I also enjoyed attending the Think Tank talks for the same reasons. It was encouraging to speak to people who have been in my shoes. Listening to their advice and experiences was moving. Another takeaway from events was gaining networking skills. Sometimes, I have a hard time talking to strangers, but because everyone there was driven by a creative passion it made it easier for me to find commonalities and start fruitful discussions.
Overall, I am extremely grateful for this internship. I have grown not only in my technical graphic design skills, but also my networking skills. As the internship draws to a close, I feel more confident and inspired than ever before.
