First week working at Danica was so much fun. The office has a really happy energy and everyone is very cheery. I felt very welcomed and included right away.
Danica has a team of 15 designers in office plus contract photographers and helpers. Everyone works together and provides feedback on basecamp. I appreciate that everyone provides helpful feedback that always feels positive. There is a lot of different design work in the office, surface design (illustrations for products), packaging, branding, catalog layout, photography and marketing. I’m interested in all of it and the overall process that goes into creating a product and getting it to a consumer. Because of my broad interest Andrea, VP of Creative, has set me up to meet with everyone and learn what they do. I spent my first week getting to see all the amazing work everyone does.
pen holder, catalogs and an introduction guide.
I really appreciate all the training and it really feels like Danica is excited and prepared for a student. On day 1 Andrea gave me a flow chart that explained everyone’s position and she introduced me to every person individually so that helped me settle in right away. Sierra, a past IDEA grad, gave me this guide for key accounts made just for me which was so helpful and thoughtful.
I started a couple of projects this week for marketing, packaging and key accounts. Key accounts is private label work for other companies. I won’t divulge who my project is for but it is for Christmas. Danica always works 1 year ahead for their inline products. Sierra has a different process for illustration than I do and it was amazing to see a demo from her. She took me through a case study for one project from the brief to the final physical product which I loved seeing. She draws using mask layers in photoshop so that colours can be easily changed. I adapted to the style and I think it’s a great way to work that I will use for future projects. Most people in office use Wacom tablets but I use my iPad as a drawing tablet so I was able to show the other designers that as well, I think I sold at least one on it.
The first week was fantastic, I’m really excited about spending the next 7 weeks here.