Before I write out my reflection I want to reintroduce my initial guiding question: “what is it like to work with design in a professional setting, and how can I explore my intersecting interests within design?”. I was guided by this question. Before my senior project, I knew I was interested in design but I didn’t know how it looked in a professional setting. I was able to see design outside of just an art space or a classroom. I think every design job is different but I loved how Koko’s Architecture was run. It seemed like a sustainable balance between desk work, interactive problem-solving, and site work. With some jobs, you spend a lot of time in one place on a computer but at the office, I was helping with materials and visiting some locations of clients. Also, the people in the office were constantly talking to each other and working together.
I think that I went into my senior project with a pretty open mind. Before I began my first week I knew there was a good chance that my independent project (the proposed ice cream store model) would shift due to logistical reasons. Therefore when I had to rethink my independent work time I wasn’t caught off guard because it wasn’t the main backbone of my project. The work I did with the internship did meet my expectations. I loved when I went in person to the firm and helped out with small or large tasks.
Most of the challenges I faced with my project were logistical. I got unlucky with certain circumstances I couldn’t change. In the beginning, I had a lot of college tours so I had to shift my independent work time to mainly sketching, visiting museums, researching, and photographing. I also got sick twice and got covid once which disrupted my time. Yet I still tried my best to continue remote working for the internship. A small technical challenge I faced at the end of my internship is when I was asked to make a digital floor plan on a software called Vectorworks but my computer didn’t have space. Since I had covid that week I wasn’t able to use the computers at the internship which I would have normally done to work around the small issue.
I took risks with the tasks that were handed to me from the internship. Like when I was told to organize the material closet I couldn’t continuously ask clarifying questions about where things should go so I kind of had to make up my own system and trust my organizational skills.
After my project, I feel that my overall confidence has increased. I’m definitely an open person but I often doubt myself and seek reassurance. In the moments where I found myself hesitant about my work or a way I completed a task, I just forced myself to present it to the internship and not second-guess too much. I told myself that whatever feedback I get is normal, helpful, and expected. I also realized that follow-through and dialogue are extremely important. Because of my sicknesses and college tours, I consistently emailed my internship updating with my circumstances and asking if they needed any assistance. This kept me in the loop and I was able to still provide a helping hand.
The internship made me excited to go into design as a possible career. As I have said before, I’ve done independent design classes and work on my own time but this is my first time working in a professional setting for design. I’m feeling more ready to jump into a college for design. Also, I worked more with interior design than I was expecting and I realized how much I enjoy it. I think that if I hadn’t done this internship I wouldn’t have yet realized how much I’m drawn to researching furniture products, envisioning layouts, and forming color palettes.
What surprised me about the experience was the process of pitching to a client. When I attended a zoom meeting between Koko’s Architecture and one of their clients, they shared a slideshow and for every proposed furniture piece or layout they would give a few options and the client would choose what they preferred. It was way more collaborative and flexible than I had imagined. Koko’s Architecture didn’t just present a rigid layout and hand it to the client with no input. They would respond and reshape their idea around a client’s taste or preferences.
I am proud of my work ethic. I feel like I was in touch with Adam and Mishi when I wasn’t in person at the internship. I’m also proud of my organization and timing. I feel like I worked effectively on tasks. I do wish that I had devoted more time to my sketching. After a while, the sketches became a more personal thing for me and less about a big project to present. In the context of a senior project maybe I could have made it something more presentable to an audience, but it was beneficial for me in its own way.
If I could do senior project again I would make sure that all my technical issues were resolved before beginning the project (like when my computer didn’t have a lot of space and I had to get the administration password a few times).
I think the hardest part of senior project was that when I wasn’t in person at the internship I had to hold myself accountable and do sketching or researching. A lot of the time when I was doing this work I was at home but sometimes I would force myself to go to my neighborhood library which would help motivate me. So I had to practice getting into a productive routine.
When I present my project, instead of just showing the tasks that I worked on, I also want to tell the story of the project. For instance: why I enjoyed the dynamics of the internship and how it helped me narrow down my interest in certain fields of design. I do want to show some photographs of my work at the internship, but I also want to share photographs, sketches, and moments from the times I visited museums and did research on designers.