My summer internship: Ellie Houghton
During our last summer break, I applied for an
internship programme in the Department of
Communication and Media, which involved creating
content for our campus-based #Call it out campaign,
including graphics, posters and flyers, that aimed
to raise student’s critical awareness of online
harassment.
When I was initially offered the intern position, I had
only slight experience with this type of work. But throughout the course
of the internship, Craig Haslop and Fiona O’Rourke supported the
development of our work by giving advice and offering regular ‘pep-talks’.
We had many discussions about the effectiveness of our design pieces
and we were always encouraged to ask whether they communicated key
concepts relevant to the anti-harassment campaign.
We also did a lot of background research and analysis of pre-existing
anti-harassment campaigns in UK universities and elsewhere to support
the development of our design ideas. Our team spent many hours
drafting design pieces. We would find ourselves obsessively tweaking
one image and noticing how each design alteration changed the overall
appearance of the work.
While working on the internship, we built a small stock-pile of work,
with each piece aiming to communicate key campaign messages in
a creative and innovative way. The internship programme enabled
me to acquire a range of skills, which include improved knowledge of
the design process, the ability to critique and assess my work and an
appreciation of the immense work involved in creating content for an
anti-harassment campaign.
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