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.