Coffee, anyone?

That’s not all our interns do, we promise! Actually, we truly believe in internships and would like to give you a brief look inside our internship program. Giving back to our community is one of our greatest values, and as far as design goes, investing in our interns is close to the best way to do that.

Each of us designers can look back on our internship as an invaluable experience. Maybe awkward (think of your first portfolio review), maybe humiliating at times (oh, a tall coffee isn’t a large?), but vital in determining our career path. Why? Real-world experience helps you define expectations and succeed in all aspects of your career, not just what they focus on at school.

Most often we hire college students as interns, but every once in a while we take on a high school intern or two. It’s a great time to check out whether a career may or may not be a good fit for you. As is our usual practice, we’d like to introduce you to our newest intern, Tyler LeVan, through a little interview. Without further adieu:

R29: Tyler, why did you want to intern at Rule29?

TL: I’m a senior at Wheaton Academy (a local high school), and every year during January we have the opportunity to do an independent study. I decided that this year rather than take a class or go snowboarding for two weeks, I would do an internship. I knew that I wanted to go to somewhere that focused on graphic design work, photography, or film. My dad suggested I check out Rule29 as a possibility. So I looked up the website and thought that it would be an awesome place to work!

R29: Why do they call you number 17a instead of 18?

TL: Since I’m still in high school and am only here for a few weeks, I get to be sort of an intern shadow. It’s cool because I can get a solid idea of what graphic design life is like before heading to college.

R29: What have you been working on during your internship?

TL: Well, my first day in training with the current intern, Kellen, I accidentally aided in killing Rule29′s fish. Sigh. So after a fish flushing ceremony, they decided to steer me clear of aquatics and get right to design work. I started by typesetting some business cards (pretty straightforward) and working on developing some icons for the First Baptist Church of Geneva (pretty cool!). I’ve also gotten to work on larger projects like designing a poster for Rule29′s 10-year anniversary (check back next week to see the designs!)

R29: What about your internship did you least expect?

TL: Besides fish killing, probably measuring the house with Kellen. That was good stuff. Measuring the driveway outside though was freezing. They said it had something to do with measuring their carbon footprint for the year. Who knew!

R29: Do you like the life of the designer?

TL: Yes! At Rule29, there’s lots of good music and tomfoolery, but they still get work done. It seems like a great, balanced job.

R29: What are your overall thoughts on  your two weeks at Rule29?

TL: My experience in these two weeks here at R29 has been a good one so far! I’ve learned a lot about all the clients they do work for and the type of work they do for each different client. Getting to work here every day is a lot of fun, and it beats the heck out of school!

Want to join R29 as an intern? All we ask is a strong interest in design, a positive and willing attitude to do whatever it takes to learn about all aspects of design studio life (yes, sometimes getting coffee!), and being ready and willing to work hard and learn a lot (don’t be shy, ask questions!).

Any good intern stories out there? Send them our way.