Just some final thoughts as I accept that my internship is over.  I have appreciated all the opportunities that I have had designing and hope the next designer can have as much fun and creativity in the position.  I will miss working with all the great people and my advisor.  I am really looking forward to graduation and the beginning of a career in the field of graphic design.  There are many design pieces that I can use in my portfolio and the experience on my resume will speak for itself.  Overall I am very happy for this experience and feel more confident in my skills as a designer.

Well, rather than the usual 12 pages to design, there were 16 pages needed to layout and design.  I feel much better about some of the design I came up with this issue and have received compliments regarding it.  These are a few fun designs I came up with this issue. The last is the index which I decided to add graphics to enhance it’s visual appeal.

I am starting some new things this issue including adding chart and graph elements to my designs.  Already I have come up with a couple of designs and hope to integrate them into the paper.  Stories and photos seem to be coming in properly and on time, so that makes the design process so much easier.  With only two issue left, I hope to have a few more portfolio pieces to work with out of them.

This issue I was asked to design an ad for an event about the civil war.  The only information provided to me was the text itself, so I took that text and added my own designed graphics and border to make the announcement pop more.

Here is a design for a short story announcing that the talent show needs contestants.  I used the curtains to draw attention to the spot while also telling a little bit of the story.

Well, spring break is over and I am preparing for another issue layout.  This will be a challenge since everyone has been in relax mode for a while now and it is time to get back to work.  For some it may be easier with the extra week, but for me it is really hard because I drove to TX for spring break.  It would be nice to have relaxed some over the break, but I did the opposite.

The last issue was almost ruined because the day before the paper was delivered, the parking lot predator was caught.  Our front page was changed last minute for the breaking story, and then just before it was ready the man was caught.  So despite our efforts to get something really newsworthy out there, we were basically a day short.  Either way it was a great effort and taught me some important lessons on last minute type changes and the challenges that go with it.

Well, the third issue is about to come out tomorrow.  I think this is one of the best so far as far as content and design.  There was a last minute change to the front page which was really challenging.  Once you have all of the jumps placed and the majority of the paper already in a place and designed, changing the front page changes almost the entire paper.  Also those late changes make it more probable that a mistake will be made and overlooked.  I am learning to manage my time more efficiently so I can achieve the same level of success in my designs in less time and effort.

I find myself looking at every newspaper I come across for design ideas and to critique things I don’t like.  It is interesting to see what other designers do different than me and how is looks overall.  One of my hopes is to have an issue that has a full page color photo  on the front, we just have to find the right topic and photo that will stand alone as an image and be right for what we have in mind.

So far we have had two issues come out this semester.  The first issue was great.  There were a few sections that I completely redesigned like the “Current Crime” section and the “Concert Schedule”.  Then in the second issue, I made a second round of changes to the “Concert Schedule”.  A few challenges I face is getting the stories with photographs turned into me in enough time to layout the paper.  Sometimes there are stories of events that have not happened yet or happen the day before deadline that need to be included in that particular issue so I won’t get them until late.  In those cases it is helpful to have a design in mind ahead of time so you can prepare as much as possible.  It can be challenging at times, but in the end it is a lot of fun to see the end result come together.

I work closely with the editors and adviser to come up with designs that work well with each particular story.  In the end the combination of the reporters, photographers, editors, and the designer all combine their talents together to create a great newspaper.

My internship is with the college paper, Campus Current, as the graphic designer.  I use Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator to complete the layout process with stories, photographs, ads, classifieds, and any other graphics or designs at the paper.  The paper comes out every other week so the bulk of my work spans about 5-6 days of work every two weeks.  One of the set backs is the deadline.  You have to have all content which includes final stories and optimized photographs laid out and designed in a short amount of time.  My favorite thing about working with the paper is that I have a lot of flexibility in my designs.  The people I work with are very open minded and appreciative of how much hard work I put into each issue.  This is my second semester working for the paper and I have really come to love the work I am doing.

helpful links:

• http://www.aacc.edu/careers/businessletters.cfm

• http://www.career.vt.edu/JOBSEARC/coversamples.htm
• http://career-advice.monster.com/sample-resumes/customize-your-cover-letter/home.aspx
• http://baltimore.aiga.org/jobs/resources_1/common_resume_mistakes

LinkedIn

http://thecaffeinatedblog.typepad.com/the_caffeinated_blog/2008/08/unlock-the-full-potential-of-your-linkedin-profile.html

www.izzyvideo.com

Rotating Images On a Page

week 14

http://www.lynda.com/freepass/michael/

http://www.lynda.com

Dynamic content for web: http://www.dynamicdrive.com

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/lightbox/index.htm

You are here action: http://www.creativepro.com/article/dreamweaver-how-create-you-are-here-navigation-links

http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Build_Dynamic_Breadcrumbs_With_JavaScript_

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