We started this week with our Gradshow. In the best of circumstances, this would have been such a fun event to celebrate completing our degree and a great reunion event for many past grads who are now industry professionals. Ironically our show was grocery store themed which is now as a hot a commodity as we are (bad-dum-tss). We were able to adapt the theme to home delivery and made our show digital. Industry professionals were able to see our work online and meet us through Zoom. It was so encouraging to hear praise from the industry folks I talked to. It wasn’t the same as a real Gradshow but it still felt good to hear that they felt my work was up to snuff. Many others in the industry have also reached out to give us portfolio reviews and I really appreciate everyone caring about us although they are also going through a difficult time. It was great as well to see some of our teachers, we haven’t seen them in months and I had been looking forward to the show as our big goodbye.

On Tuesday I got back to work and worked on the illustration brief and helped with the launch of a new website for the brand. With in-store shopping becoming a thing of the past there has been a big shift to online shopping. This is something Danica was preparing to do in a future roll out but it has suddenly become urgent. I worked with Andrea to get the site ready to launch as quickly as possible while still maintaining the plans we had for the brand. I also made some fun animations using the products for social media. They went over really well and I showed Andrea a demo of how I made them using After Effects.

I have one more week at my practicum and I’m going to be sad to let it go. Though not the ideal situation any of us were hoping for I’m still so grateful for this experience. Danica was a great fit for me and it helped reassure me that I am ready to graduate and get to work. I am so grateful for how well the IDEA program has prepared us to work in this industry.