Intern Imbued with Experience

For this year, we’ve been given the opportunity to host Forrest Mills from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services N.C. as our intern. He came to us excited and motivated to contribute. His background has a major focus on Illustration, so I focused on teaching print production and InDesign basics. Many twists and turns came our way this year, but I’m happy to say we made the most of it. My end goal was to prepare him for his venture into freelance art.

Q&A

Q: How has this internship benefited you as an Illustrator?

I think that in general with this being a production centered business is kind of a nice box to cram yourself into. As much as you’re told that time management is important in school, it never really sinks in until you’re in a workspace environment. It gives you a real precedent to apply your process rather than a hypothetical one.

Q: What do you value concerning your internship projects?

A lot of the time, because of how my creative process works, maybe my personal educational journey, there is rarely a finished product. For me, it’s proof that I can take my process and apply it to a textbook ridged product. It forces you to take your creativity and distill it. I wanted to take this opportunity not just to plug in my artwork and call it there. I wanted it to adapt to the media.

Q: What was your experience transitioning into remote operations?

Troubleshooting, remote server access, and having to triple check your saving structure was kind of a huge undertaking. It was very anxiety-inducing for me. Especially when I normally just spin around in my chair and I can ask for help when needed. It’s interesting that the actual technical transition was such a challenge. Other than that, it proved that I could be successful as a freelancer and enjoy producing work at home.

Q: Most useful software tools imparted on you?

I would say that Pathfinder in Illustrator is a stick and that shape builder is basically sharpening the point of that stick to a very pointy tip. Being able to, on my last project, learn about the functionality of combining your shapes that you make with your pen tool more viable for someone that primarily uses a tablet.