Over this summer, I have been interning at a design agency called Toast Design for a few weeks. During my time here, I have been working on a number of different tasks including:
- Layouts for documents – converting documents to agency branding style
- Website concept designs
- Creating logo mood boards for client
- Designing logo concepts – sketching and on Illustrator
- Designing website banners for a range of clients (Call-to-actions)
At Toast Design, I have been working on a variety of different projects, some based on web design and others print based. Over the last year, I have been developing my skills in HTML and CSS through designing and coding my own portfolio website and am enjoying learning a new skill which I believe to be valuable as a Graphic Designer. I think that it is important to try out lots of different branches of Graphic Design as there are so many different aspects and types of project that you could work on and it is so exciting to be able to work on different projects in your day to day job.
I have been working in the web section of the agency and completed designs for banners to go on their clients sites. This helped me with ensuring that styling is relevant and suitable for the existing branding of the company in order to be consistent.
I have also been designing website concepts to be sent off to the client for approval/ choice of their favourite to progress with. I really enjoyed coming up with different variations using the companies styling and colour systems. The client fed back their favourite and one of my design concepts was chosen to progress with.
One of my favourite areas of Graphic Design is layout and Editorial design. I was able to put these skills into practice during my internship when I was given a number of documents to convert into the Toast Design styling to be provided to their clients. I enjoyed being able to take content and replace and experiment with different layouts to be visually interesting and engaging to read.
Overall, during this experience, I have learnt more about the process of a project and the different stages in terms of feeding back progress to the client. When getting an idea for what style of logo or similar design a client is looking for, I saw how you create a collection of between 30-40 inspiration images to show to the client. Giving them a wide choice allows you to get a better idea of their initial “vision” for their design. Then you are able to narrow down and design something that the client is looking for.
I think that working on projects based around websites has given me more of an interest in web design and encourages me to work harder to progress my skills and understanding in this area.
eilidhdesign 