Day 1

Today I learned that my campaign concept did not get picked. Oh well! We’ll get em next time. My team member got on that project real quick and finished the next stage deliverables for it in the same day–What a champ. 

My tasks today were: 

• Made a landing mobile page wireframe for jfs
• Exported files for logo (which was very therapeutic)
• Designed content for “meet the newbies” for P&G’s internal instagram

Day 2

Because I’ve been helping out with a different project this week, I got to work more closely with a different person. The branding team lead for this project has been an absolute delight to work with, she is such a ray of sunshine and has been giving me great lil morsels of design advice. I had the pleasure of seeing her wonderful work, and for the first time, got to see what a proper brand guideline looked like (will definitely be using those for reference). 

My tasks today were:

• Exporting some other files
• Making brand collateral based on the branding lead’s designs
  • Thinking about how I had such a hard time in gae’s class trying to make everything interconnect, but now REALLY understanding the importance of the process she taught us (identifying and singling out the visual brand elements to make the rest of the design process so much easier)

I’m mentally taking note of how my team lead does things, learning lots from her confidence and process.

Day 3

My tasks for today:

• Edited brand collateral from the team leads critiques
  • She put such clear feedback under each item/task and also made sure to put in specific compliments too
• Worked more on “meet the newbies” content for instagram
  • I know I always say this and so do the teachers but wow leaving something to look at and add to/revise the next day is such a fantastic idea 

Day 4+5

I took on more internal deliverables and made an IG post and Twitter infographic for this month’s theme of change!

Got briefed on a big client project with a new partner, which although he warned me was really dry and technical, sounded genuinely super exciting.

• There’s a lot of UX ideation involved, which I love (like solving a puzzle)
• It’s a lot of stuff to onboard me for, so for the time he commits to explaining things to me and getting me up to speed, I really hope I can make up for it by actually being of help.
  • Which is why I need to study up and re-review the reference material he gave me
• I really need the experience in designing for a huge amount of information hierarchy, and I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot from this.

I also had a coffee chat with a coworker, who had a very inspiring career path and offered lots of amazing advice for my own.

• It was very motivating 

Had check-in with Kateland

• Stuff I need to work on:
  • Better communication
  • Better management of time and tasks
    • In my first week, I signed up for many tasks without actually considering the length of time they would take, and misprioritized the tasks I had at hand. I spent less time on the actual important projects I was assigned to, which led to me not finishing things in time (and of course my inefficiency was a big factor as well)
    • In these scenarios, I neglected to communicate them to my team members earlier, which in one case, resulted in a team member having to help me finish up when it was close to the end of the work day.

• Kateland gave me clearcut feedback for me to improve on and so for the following 3 weeks, I need to:
  • Fully understand what the task at hand is, and what it requires before taking them on (only if I have the capacity)
  • Prioritize the work that has actually been assigned to me, and have a smarter, more efficient working process
  • Multitask better by referring to P&G’s timesheet of approximately how much time I should be spending on each project. 
  • Communicate more with Kateland and my team members. Be aligned at all times with objectives and tasks, and don’t be afraid to reach out more.
  • Take more advantage of my internship, reach out to more people to get to know them better.
    • Although I have so much more to improve on, I feel that there’s already been (at least in my opinion) a good improvement in my third week compared to my first (of me learning more on how to operate in an agency structure). I hope I can keep that coming as I work towards my 6th!!  

I’m 3 weeks into my practicum and have already gained a huge amount of learning experience that will definitely carry forward. I really appreciate that I’m being held to the standard of an actual employee and it’s been an immense pleasure getting to know everybody more at Pound and Grain. Their company culture and sense of community has been a delight to be a part of, and with Kateland’s advice, I’ll try to connect with the team more so that I can make lasting connections that span past just a simple practicum period.

Monday

Things I kept in mind today: 

• EFFICIENCY
• Don’t fixate on tiny details

I helped out with storyboarding, which was a pretty cool process to look into as I’ve never done that type of work.

I continued fleshing out my concept for a campaign, due to the nature of the campaign, a lot of my work was based on the images I was sourcing, which I had great insights on critiques on factors that I had not considered: such as budget, brand guidelines, production restraints that would limit feasibility on certain things. 

I’ve been so used to the “the sky’s the limit” mindset in school, so it’s been very enlightening to adjust to real-life applications.

It was a very busy day trying to get work done in time, but very rewarding to discover that I’ve managed to pull out from my subconscious what we’ve learned for JLau’s photoshop class. 

Tuesday

I did not finish my deliverables in time for internal review!!!!!! Ahh!!!! !! 

I did receive very informed and experienced insights, however, and emerged out of the meeting more sure of exactly what it is I need to be designing. 

Other than working further on this same project, I had some time to do some cute content for P&G’s Instagram, as well as to finish up on other onboarding tasks. 

Wed 

I spent the day working on my campaigning concepts for client presentation, although still lagging behind my coworkers, I can feel myself working SLIGHTLY faster than I did last week.

THURS

I finished up revisions for the campaigning project, and had time to reorganize my files (which were previously kind of gross). It felt really nice to finish a project on time. 

For the next project, I’ll have to take a proactive approach in keeping them tidy in the first place.

I got to work on mobile screens for an event landing page that my partner had designed, which I enjoyed immensely because I got to do some UX ideation on how

• I could simplify the experience 
• Create a smooth flow in the journey

With consideration to dev constraints and my target audience (e.g., older age=bigger text for better legibility)

I also made sure to take note of my partners’ working file and process, which for the record, was a great process.  

FRI

Today was FANTASTIC.

I got to sit in a client presentation where I had made one concept for. The clients expressed that they liked my team member’s concept as well as mine, which was kind of crazy. 

And that was a wrap! For now. Now we sit back on this project to await client approval.
This project was a great first to start my practicum, and I’m looking forward to seeing it through to its completion.

I helped with presentation layouts today. Remembering how I used to be complete trash at layouts in year 1, it’s also been wild to think of how far I’ve come (not that I’m particularly great at layouts NOW, but just that I’ve improved a lot).

I also got to discuss P&G social media with the social media team

• I really enjoyed getting to hear the new social media and community manager’s insights, she sounded super well-read and definitely good at her job.

Finally week 2 came to a wonderful end with our weekly happy hour. 

This week’s happy hour was special! We all got ubereats coupons to enjoy during, and got to partake in Trivia Night!

This was my first time doing trivia party and it was pretty fun–My team got third place!! I’m glad to have been able to get to know my team members a lot more through this fun game, and was pleased to discover that they have a very expansive knowledge of geography that I certainly do not have.

This week has been very enjoyable and motivating (and a lot less hectic than the first week!), I’m excited to start the next one, applying my learnings from weeks 1 and 2.

Day 1

I’m super glad that I was able to experience my first day in office with Kateland, she graciously showed me around P&G’s beautiful office, meeting rooms and a fully fleshed out DJ section galore.

Kateland was super helpful with any questions I had, and the first thing I got to do with my new coworkers was a Yiddish quiz. 

I sat in a client meeting and internal reviews, it was quite fascinating to see projects that would actually be carried out in real life for everybody to see. 

It was only my first day, but I could already feel the synergy from all my new coworkers, and I knew that I’d definitely be learning lots from them in these 6 weeks.

Day 2

I got to enjoy some lovely coffee chats with my coworkers, everyone was so friendly and welcoming; I’m looking forward to working with them soon. 

I enjoyed seeing the processes and applications that make companies work so efficiently.

Day 3

I got to present some campaign ideas to my creative team! Loved seeing their ideas.

It was really interesting to get to know brand guidelines and the many restrictions that come with big brands.

Day 4+5

In my enthusiasm to keep myself busy and help others out, I’ve realized how supremely inefficient I was in doing technical tasks. ALSO, I’m sure that some of my photoshop processes and layers are unforgivable, and I hope under my coworkers’ wings, I will improve in that at least a little bit more. Kateland has been helping immensely with making sure I’m on the right track, and helping me prioritize my work and make the most out of my daily hours. 

P&G has a lovely community of hard workers, and I hope I can soon find my fit within this community so that I can make impactful work and be of more help to the P&G team.