Stop at the Sign of the Lemon

Vacation began by visiting my grandmother’s house in Rhode Island. Anyone that’s tried it, knows that Del’s Frozen Lemonade is UNREAL (aka very delicious). I cannot go to her house without stopping at Del’s.

Family Time

My family and I went to Chicago to visit my brother who started working there last September. We spent the weekend and early this week hanging out; going on architecture cruises, bike tours, seeing Beyonce (she was staying at our hotel!), going to the beach and then some.

The Big Bean

We went to the bean, which is a huge stainless steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor (and is actually called “Cloud Gate”). Cloud Gate is a staple of Chicago’s Millennium Park. My brother tried to convince me that it was made out of one piece of steel, I believed him until I just read the Wikipedia article and found it’s made of 168 welded steel plates. It looks so seamless though.

Jay Pritzker Pavillion

We also walked around the Jay Pritzker Pavillion. The band shell is like it’s own sculpture!

Barefoot Sailors

We went down to the harbor to look at all the sailboats. Many of the sailors were readying their boats for the Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to the Mackinac, one of the longest fresh-water sailboat races in the world. If you downloaded Youth + Constellations you may have read that my Dad used to race sailboats, which is part of my obsession with all things nautical. (Not to mention that I think it’s really cute that most of the deckhands go barefoot.)

Carved Turtles

I took a visit to the John G. Shedd aquarium. The architecture there (much like the rest of the city) was amazing. They even had sea turtles sculpted into the ceiling.

Underwater Garden

At the aquarium my favorite exhibit was these sea anemones that looked like an underwater garden. I love the colors! I was bummed that the aquarium didn’t have any huge sea turtles. But they had baluga whales!

96th Floor

On my last night in Chicago, I went to the top of the John Hancock building, to the 96th floor and looked over the city. It was an incredible view, and a perfect ending to my vacation.

So you’re thinking of getting an internship?  Good idea, lucky for you a bad economy doesn’t hurt your chances of getting an internship.  In fact, in times like these big companies cut full-time positions and replace that staff with interns—the ethics of that may be something to discuss at another time but for now, use it to your benefit.  Good luck!

Decide what area(s) you want to learn more about - Do you want to learn more about the behind-the-scenes of magazines? Maybe you’d like to intern at a publication or editorial website. How marketing works in fashion/design/advertising? Why not try an internship in marketing or PR? How web design agencies work? Intern at one! Internships are great because not only do they let you test out the waters of a future career—but they also help to gain real world experience that you would never gain from school.

Make a list of prospective places you would like to work - Magazines, agencies, companies, anything! Do some research on the website; they may list available internships under the Careers tab, if not, look around the site for contact information and call or email them asking for the contact information about the employee or department that handles interns.

-OR-

Look for an opportunity - Craigslist, Fashionista, Ed2010, and the SPD Job Board have been a good start when I’m looking for online listings. I’ve also had a bit of luck with word of mouth.  My W internship was sparked by talking to a friend of a friend about career goals, turns out his best friends sister worked in the art department.

Apply - Send a well-formatted, spell-checked, and professional resume and coverletter.  Make sure to include a digital-portfolio (pdf or website) or writing samples based on the type of internship you’re applying for.

Interview – Dress professionally and bring a resume!  PSDTuts has a good resource for preparing and talking about your graphic design portfolio.  Do research the company before hand and think of questions to ask (and answers to questions that you may be asked during the interview.)  Be sure to follow up and say thank you after the interview!

Talk to your advisor – Due to labor laws many internships require you get school credit—sometimes this can suck.  I have always found a creative work-around so that I haven’t had to pay extra tuition to take an internship, which at Parsons is $1000 per extra credit.  Options include registering your internship as independent study, or (I’ve never tried this) them writing a letter that makes it seem like you’re receiving school credit. Ed2010 offers advice about getting around a credit-only internship.

For the more seasoned readers; what was your first internship and how did you find it?

It’s about that time to start think about places that I would be psyched to work for.  I love web-design (and a similar post on the topic should be coming shortly), too—but today is about magazines.  After my internship last fall at W Magazine, I realized I’d love to be in the art or online department of any of these glossies; Preen – for their design and photography with a hint of psychedelics, i-D for their articles and history, V Magazine for being a magazine that knows how to translate to web, Interview – especially with M/M Paris at the helm (their website is great, too), W for the art director/group design director/everything, Bust for the perspective, Russh for the layout and photography (and location!), or Good Magazine for their design, website, overarching principals, and basically everything.

Finally, MTV announces that episodes of Daria are coming out on DVD!

For $400 Urban Outfitters will build you a single-speed hipster whip.

Nubby posted a great quote from Peter Saville on her blog.

Coroflot hosted a Creative Confab in Portland recently where a panel of designers addressed a lot of questions about hiring designers at their offices. Watch/listen to part one and part two.

Check out the design department associated with Acne Jeans.

One of my favorite artists, Kime Buzzelli is having an art show in Philly, check it out!

A reader, Maria, from Camberwell College of Art in London sent me a link to her flickr of her illustration work and it is awesome!

NYGirlOfMyDreams.com is a way cuter and more personal missed connection by Patrick Moberg, and he found her!

This HP printer (not-quite-yet) viral video is classified under “I’m jealous i didn’t think of that first!” and “This needs to be a superbowl commercial”