The story of an intern

The story of an intern

(My time at Volta by Jared Hawkmoon, student at Sheffield Hallam University).

During my time at Volta Creative, I’ve found myself in a plethora of scenarios and situations which have all tested my current ability as a designer as well as introducing new skills and challenges to develop and enhance my skill set.

Upon beginning my placement in early September 2018, I was introduced to Volta’s friendly team and shown the ropes in order to get to grips with the work format, as well as how everything was carried out. As soon as the basics were learned, I was immediately given design jobs to do for clients as well as internal ones for Volta as a business, which really helped me to hit the ground running and experience how things were done from day one. Throughout the first couple of months, I spent time completing jobs independently as well as working with other members of the team to carry out collaborative projects that exposed me to a variety of different design areas, as well as introducing me to the process of print preparation.

The first few months consisted of me getting to grips with the basis of the company and each area of working, as well as shadowing some members of the team to focus on the glass-artwork production side of the business. After the new year, I began to be given more jobs to work on independently, which allowed me to organise each day to accommodate all the tasks I had been given, as well as working on a variety of different jobs including branding, advertisements, business cards, posters and flyers, all of which tested and developed different areas of my skill set as a designer. As time went on and it reached the final half of my placement year, I began to converse with some customers regarding the glass-artwork jobs and carried out a lot of these from start to finish fully independently, liaising with the customer as the work progressed. Not only did this introduce me to a new area of design which I had never come across before, but it allowed me to become increasingly experienced in communicating with customers, and as well as the preparation of approved jobs.

I was also given the opportunity to share some of my personal photography work on Volta’s website, writing a short piece that provided a background and insight into the work I’ve carried out during my free time. This not only allowed me to experience writing blog/newsletter pieces, but also helped me further understand the reasoning behind my own personal work more so than I did before.

Overall, I definitely feel that my year at Volta Creative has given me the experience to adapt to different scenarios when it comes to design and has allowed me to develop my ability to problem solve and prioritise work loads depending on the deadlines I was given. It has also allowed me to work alongside experienced designers and learn new skills from them as the year has progressed. I very much look forwards to putting these skills to practice in my final year at university and seeing how my work evolves as a result.

And lastly, thank you to everyone at Volta for the past year!

Need more information on when we will be looking for next years intern? Contact us either by calling 0114 276 3736, emailing us at hello@voltacreative.uk or by sending us a message using our secure form.

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