Have you ever wondered what it’s like interning for a web design firm? Since starting at Webspec last spring, I have learned much more than I originally anticipated. Imagine my surprise when I discovered college doesn’t teach you everything about the industry you aspire to be in after graduation! Although I’ve invested four years worth of time and money to Iowa State University, where I’ll be graduating in the spring of 2016, experience that I’ve gained through my Webspec Design internship is invaluable. As I continue on as a designer at Webspec this fall, here are 10 things that I’ve learned that college didn’t teach me:
1. Clients cannot always envision our designs
While we’re in class, we’re given an assignment and then told to make it “aesthetically pleasing”. In reality, clients usually have a vision of how they would like their company portrayed, and it could very well be a different route than a designer would like to take. The only people we have to please in college are our professors, and the payoff is a good grade. If we don’t please the client, we risk the business that Webspec is receiving – and it’s usually harder to get an “A” from them!
2. Budgets are a real thing
In the corporate world, time is money. For every minute that I’m working on a website, a client is having to pay the company for that. There is not an infinite amount of time to design, unless the client has an infinite amount of money. (If you do, definitely call us!)
3. Adobe Photoshop is Not Only Used for Editing Photos
When I started at Webspec Design, I assumed Adobe Illustrator was used to design websites. The vectors in it would be scalable and I had always prefered to work in Illustrator for projects in my college studios. You can guess how surprised (and annoyed) I was when I learned that Photoshop is used to design websites! At the time, I despised Photoshop. Professors had always stressed the importance of only using photoshop to edit photos. Now, I can whip out a design in Photoshop with no problem, and sometimes I prefer it to Illustrator.
4. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Most of the design projects in college were done completely individually. On occasion, professors would throw in a group project to get experience as a “team player”. At Webspec, I work with teams on every project I’m given. A team is typically composed of a PM (project manager), developer, designer (me) and SEO/content writer. Everyone works together every step of the way, and it’s nothing like the group projects given in a studio. The PM oversees the project as a whole and coordinates it all. There is usually only one designer assigned, who receives all the content needed for the site from a content writer. The developer and designer work together to make it the best site it can be, and to see if certain designs are even possible. It’s much more streamlined than having five graphic design students working to make a single homepage.
5. Process Books are Obsolete
In studio classes, we have to put together a piece called a “Process Book” to hand in with every project we complete. These are used to show our professors the thought process behind our projects and how we reached the solution that we did. Now? The dreaded process books that are required are gone. Dead. Non-existent. Hasta la vista, process books! Instead, you’re accountable for your own research, inspiration and design process, which comes out of your allotted time for a project.
6. Some Projects are More Interesting Than Others
I’m not going to lie, sometimes a ho-hum website comes along, but it still has to be designed to our highest standard. Not all clients have the need or budget for an extravagant website. Sometimes, usability and branding are at the top of the client’s priority list and the design must reflect that.
7. Closet, Say Hello to Business Casual
Dressing nicely is nothing new for me, but sometimes (okay, about 90 percent of the time) I will go to class in leggings and a sweatshirt. That’s not how you dress in a business environment! Although Webspec has a more casual dress code than some businesses, jeans are a step up from my sweatpants I wore to class. The only time you must dress up professionally in the College of Design are on critique days, so about eight times in a school year. Needless to say, I’ve been slowly acquiring a suitable wardrobe that’s acceptable to the general public.
8. Designers Don’t Always Develop
When I first walked into my interview at Webspec, I was asked if I knew how to code. I hesitantly said no, I just knew the basic foundations of coding. Luckily, I was then told that Webspec has developers who code the websites I design. This whole time in school, I thought that knowing how to code would make me a great designer. My online portfolio had taken weeks to create because I tried to code it myself! Not one of my professors ever told me that coding wasn’t necessarily in a designer’s realm. If you know how to code AND you have an eye for design, all the more better, but it’s not a hard expectation.
9. Your Co-workers Become a Second Family
Although I’ve only been with Webspec for six months, I’ve learned a lot about my coworkers, from their personalities to their lives. When you spend five full days a week with others in close proximity, you start to grow on one another. In the College of Design, you generally have a similar group of people that you hang out with, who you choose to be around. At Webspec, it’s a mixture of different people with various personalities and interests.
10. Getting Paid to Do What You Love > Paying to Do What You Love
Although this is number 10 on the list, it’s the number one thing I’ve learned while working at Webspec Design. I am designing for actual clients, who pay for the end product. In college, I’ve paid a large sum of money to design projects to please a professor and get a good grade. But being able to design for eight hours a day for a client versus taking another Women’s Studies class is something you can’t beat. It’s a great feeling knowing that my designs are going towards something more than a grade for a class.
