UrbanArts Academy - 9 hours
This week at UrbanArts I got an insight into the organizational part of an organization.
I received a call from the academy in the morning of the day I always go in usually, to ask if I can come a bit earlier and help with some of the design part. After I went in they explained me that they needed my help with their summer brochure design. They said it had to be sent to the printer in two days and so it was an important project.
I was explained how it was designed last year, and the things that needed to be changed this year. The person who was explaining me this, told that she tried her hands at InDesign software and it took her a long time to figure it out. I was happy to help as I'm a Graphic Design major, so I'm familiar with some of the problems that might occur. This experience was helpful for me as I realized how she was doing so many things on this job, and so were everyone else. It isn't just simply about teaching and being with children, but there is a huge amount of planning and organization that goes into it. While working with non-profit organizations one does a lot more than just the job title. I was amazed by the fact that she self taught herself InDesign and was trying to design it, along with her regular job. Specially being a graphic designer I know how difficult software can be sometime. I'm aware of how confusing it can be for us too to export files according to special printer requirements, and differently for the web.
I worked on the summer brochure the whole 4 hours I was there. It was a interesting experience to design on a windows computer, as I'm so used to working on an Apple computer. It took me a while to get a hang out it. I was introduced to their images bank, logos and other material. I got most of it done but I was confused about some of the copy. The brochure contains images, descriptions of all the summer classes, times etc. It was also a learning experience as a designer to fit everything on the assigned pages as it saved them huge amounts of printing money.
Past 2 days, I exchanged a lot of emails with them with different edits and more camp descriptions. The camp descriptions are written by different teachers who teach the classes and so I had to make sure they are all updated and all the dates and age groups where listed right.
I finally got the brochure done today, and they seem to be happy with it. I'm very glad to have my design skills being useful for them. I learned a lot though this process, and look forward to next week to be in a classroom again!