Over the Summer, I completed my first paid, full time, 12-week Graphic Communications internship of the two required by Clemson for my degree. I worked remotely for a company called The Packaging School, located in Greenville, South Carolina. Their company provides online courses and certificates for packaging professionals to learn more about all aspects of the industry, from packaging design to sustainability, and much more. I was their Graphic Design Intern, and my responsibilities included the following (as stated in my offer letter):

"As our Graphic Design Intern, you’ll be prepping web content (visuals, videos, and infographics) following established branding, supporting our goal for high quality, engaging, and effective educational content, your duties on a day-to-day basis will be;

1. Resource identification - quality assurance, conformation checks, and additions to resources for existing text and visual content
2. Graphic design - create updated and improved visuals, infographics, and figures based on existing text and content

Secondarily, opportunities to participate in other areas of the business including social media and marketing efforts are likely. Job classifications that would apply to this position include: creative / prepress / media design for online education with supplemental tasks including graphic design, photography, videography, and potential for isolated print production. Further, as we get to know each other more, we always have a need for quality contributions to our marketing and social media efforts."

My experience this Summer was incredibly insightful. Not only did I gain lots of experience in resource identification and graphic design, but I also had the opportunity to take some of their courses, such as their Packaging 101 Boot Camp (certificate pictured below), an introductory course overviewing all aspects of the packaging industry, and their Pack Design Workshop, a course explaining the ins and outs of package design.

In order to hear more about my internship experience, feel free to view the video below. This video was made to provide other Clemson Graphic Communications students looking for internships in the future with some insight about mine, however it provides a much more detailed explanation of my day-to-day operations throughout my internship.

***Please note that these internship videos do not showcase the best of my video shooting/editing skills. These are purely for other students to gain information from and I do not consider these high quality works that would be included in my portfolio.

During my last Fall semester, I completed my second paid, full-time Graphic Communications internship. It was a hybrid marketing internship at UPM Raflatac in Asheville, North Carolina. They are a sustainable pressure sensitive label materials manufacturer. As their marketing intern, my responsibilities included the following:

• Collaborating with the product managers to gain an understanding of pressure sensitive label materials, adhesives, and their unique value propositions
• Designing & copywriting marketing collateral, social media ads, and signage for major events
• Designing sample labels for mock-ups and printing trials
• Competitor research and analysis, including positioning in the market
• Keyword research and refinement for www.upmraflatac.com website
• Content creation to promote a pharmaceutical packaging webinar
• Designing PowerPoint templates for management presentations
• Designing mood boards, logos, signage, nametags for VDP, and several PowerPoints for Raflatac’s annual Americas Region meeting
• Budget evaluations for upcoming events & expos

This experience has allowed me to further develop my skills in design and copywriting, while also exposing me to multiple different areas of marketing. Additonally, this internship showed me what working for a global company is like. It was a very rewarding experience full of learning and personal growth, and I’m excited to carry these lessons forward into my future career.

In order to hear more about my internship experience, feel free to view the video below. This video was made to provide other Clemson Graphic Communications students looking for internships in the future with some insight about mine, however it provides a much more detailed explanation of the work I completed throughout my internship.

***Please note that these internship videos do not showcase the best of my video shooting/editing skills. These are purely for other students to gain information from and I do not consider these high quality works that would be included in my portfolio.