Day Seventeen

Posted on September 22, 2011 by gdwindsore

Today I worked from 10 AM to 5:45 PM for a total of  7.45 hours.

I got to learn about SEO today. I read an article about it, I researched SEO plugins for Joomla, and I worked on SEO a little bit for the TNHF site. I changed the page titles, added meta descriptions, and added meta keywords to the more important pages.

I changed the blog byline and header image during a little spare time.

After that I worked on a flyer for a harvest carnival my youth group will be putting on. I sent it to another youth group leader for review, but here’s what I have so far.

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Day Sixteen

Posted on September 20, 2011 by gdwindsore

I was at my internship for 6.25 hours today, from 11 AM to 5:15 PM.

I made some changes to the Adorned in Grace logo based on feedback from them. They wanted it to reflect the shape of the Compassion Connect logo. I’m not as happy with it as I was when it was just a simple rose/heart, so we will see what works out.

I offered to redesign the Cedar Springs Country Estate website, because the owner of the venue is a friend, I’ve worked there as a server, and I just thought it would be fun to do a wedding venue site. Here’s what I came up with for the first mock-up. I sent it to the owner, but haven’t gotten feedback quite yet.

I also spent some time working on my Facebook page for my graphic design, but I’m still not ready to go public with it.

Plus, I found out about Pix Eden today!

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Day Fifteen

Posted on September 14, 2011 by gdwindsore

I worked for 7 hours today, from 10 AM to 5 PM.

The majority of work there was for me to do was on Mesu Andrew’s site. She wanted changes to all the sidebars on her site. I added the “Free Devotionals” button, “Stay Connected” section, new “Buy Now” buttons, “About Mesu” section, book cover images, ACFW button, SheReads, button, Facebook “Like” plug-in, and Twitter plug-in to every sidebar. This site was made in WordPress, which I haven’t used as much, so I got more experience in that.

I also got to learn how to use the “Things” application and organize what needs to be done for the Mesu Andrews site in that. This involved going through a long and convoluted list of things she wanted done and translating them into an organized to-do list in graphic designer language.

That was all the work Jason had lined up for me today, so I got to spend my extra time working on the Adorned in Grace logo. Here’s the rough idea I came up with for round two and sent in for their opinions.

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Week Seven

Posted on September 14, 2011 by gdwindsore

I have been very happy with the work I have been required to do at Ekko Designs. I’ve gotten to work on a variety of different kinds of things. I’ve done print work, logo design, websites, and other web design (like the Compassion Connect Facebook fan page image). I’ve done some HTML and CSS. I’ve learned to work in Joomla and WordPress. I’ve gotten to tag along to client meetings. I’ve gained knowledge by going through tutorials on creating a website from PSD to WordPress template. I’ve also done some of the less-fun detail work like slicing up PSDs for websites and organizing to-do lists. I think it’s all been really great and very useful for my future as a graphic designer.

This work served me well in a meaningful way of learning. I don’t feel like I was ever stuck doing something pointless that wasn’t helping me learn.

I think the quality of the organization I worked for was great. I liked working for Ekko Designs because it’s a small organization and it focuses on work for churches and non-profits. It’s nice knowing the work I do here is actually helping people, not just making money for some corporation.

The quality of supervision I received was stellar. Jason was always there if I couldn’t figure something out or just needed direction. He always had time to explain things thoroughly and I never felt like I was just being a bother by asking questions.

I would tell the next intern to be well-organized and self-motivated because they will have a lot of freedom on some projects.

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Day Fourteen

Posted on September 12, 2011 by gdwindsore

We started out late today, so I was only at my internship for 4.25 hours, from 12 PM to 4:15 PM.

First off, I added and formatted the content for the Vision, Vision – The Sunday Morning Experience, Vision – Kingdom Growth, and Vision – Strong Members & Families pages on the Clear Creek Community Church website.

A little thing I did was to just change the color of the font in one of the modules on These Numbers Have Faces using inline css.

Another little thing done today was a few small changes to the Vision booklet for Clear Creek.

After that, I began work on author Mesu Andrew’s website. The first task was to redo the buttons she had as links to buying her books on different sites. I think I’ll be working on this more next time.

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Week Six

Posted on September 12, 2011 by gdwindsore

The prompt for this week was to describe the relationship between what I am doing in this internship and how I see my future in this field.

This internship is perfect for me, because I would like to be able to do freelance work in the future, and I am interning with a freelance graphic designer. I’ve been able to learn about how to start up my own graphic design business, get clients, work with clients, and manage projects on my own.

I’ve been introduced to lots of great resources that help me to be a better designer. This includes anything from learning my way around Joomla and WordPress to websites like Icon Finder. These are the sort of things that I will have to know if I want to be a freelancer, because I won’t be in a company where there are different people with specialized knowledge.

I’ve gotten experience designing multiple different kinds of media; websites, web images, postcards, booklets, etc. I enjoy having a variety of different kinds of projects, and would like to continue to be able to have that freedom in the future.

 

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Day Thirteen

Posted on September 12, 2011 by gdwindsore

I was at my internship for 7.5 hours today, from 10 AM to 5:30 PM.

I updated the sign-up forms on the Compassion Cherry Park and Compassion Tigard sites.

I made a “Sponsored By” button for Providence for the Compassion Connect banquet.

Joe and I wrote up a proposal for changes to make to the Door to Grace website. After that, we choose a template and started building a new version of the site.

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Week Five

Posted on September 12, 2011 by gdwindsore

Job Description – Graphic Designer at Ekko Designs

Hard Skills:
Must be proficient at InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Coda.
Must have a working knowledge of Joomla, WordPress, and Basecamp.
Must have sufficient knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Soft Skills:
Must work well with other people.
Must be organized.
Must have an “eye for design”.
Must have good time management skills.

 

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Day Twelve

Posted on September 6, 2011 by gdwindsore

Today I got to my internship at 10 AM and worked until 5:45 PM for a total of  7.75 hours.

The first work of the day was generating new logo and store button ideas for the TNHF website.

After that I worked on some logo ideas for Learn to Witness.

Finally, I did some work on personal branding.

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Day Eleven

Posted on September 1, 2011 by gdwindsore

I put in 7.5 hours today, from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

There were a few changes asked for on the Compassion Connect banquet page.

  • We added some new copy and formatted it.
  • I inserted a div tag around the first two sign-up sections so the last one would float to the left.
  • I created buttons to represent the sponsors of the banquet.

I added in new web forms to the Compassion Tigard site.

We went downtown to the These Numbers Have Faces office to talk with Justin Zoradi about some graphic design work he’d like done and heard the story of his company.

The vision booklet for Clear Creek Community church had to be reformatted to letter sized pages, so I did that and worked on some more formatting. Here’s the table of contents page as it is currently.

Vision Booklet - Table of Contents

The last thing I did today was work on some ideas for a new version of the logo in the top-left corner of the TNHF website and a way to integrate their shop in a prominent way.

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