Intern. Day Three.
Yesterday Thomas-Anna's-assistant-who-runs-the-design-room, aka MattDadClone, was done with jury duty and back to work. This meant several things: there was work to be done, and not just sorting trim books, and in fact I didn't stop the whole day except for when I went to lunch; I spent the first half of the day in a state of barely controlled anxiety with the nagging feeling that I was screwing up the whole time; it appears that his strategy was to just keep throwing different tasks at me and see how I reacted and I think I passed the test since he now knows my name and seems to think I am all right; I now have an ongoing project to pick up on Monday that might last me until Tuesday and it involves shoes. The fact that Anna is out of the country for several days longer means that I and the other interns on yesterday spent a fair amount of time in her office to work on stuff that basically can only get worked on while she's out, because otherwise she wouldn't really be able to work.
And it is long and detailed for several reasons: I want to remember every thing I did, every project I worked on or duty that I had, so later I can figure out the best ones to put on my resume once I'm done and consult one of our career people on how best to phrase the duties. I find learning about a designer's inspirations and work methods interesting, especially since she seems to be a big research junkie like me. An internship is not just collecting duties and tasks that you worked on for your resume but it's observing and learning how the business works and I want to make sure I remember that, too.
The first task of the day was to scan a bunch of images out of a book of 17th and 18th century embroidery samplers done by schoolgirls; apparently Anna selected them as reference for the graphic designer who will be doing the invitations for the fashion show. That was mildly interesting. She seems to be huge on old embroideries in general, as the otherwise dingy design office is full of various vintage and antique framed needlework pieces. Some are like paintings in thread, some are more like samplers, and one looks a lot like tsumami kanzashi flowers blind stitched to an embroidered backing.
(I'd love to take pictures, but I'm not stupid. I don't need it to have been put in my orientation notice that taking pictures in a design office, in the day and age of Forever 21 being able to steal your design and put out a knockoff before you can get your original out, would most likely result in instant dismissal.)
Then I guess since I didn't screw that one up too badly, I was set on *very carefully* taking
certain tacked-up images down from Anna's four inspiration/mood boards for the four capsules for an upcoming spring collection, and scanning those as reference for the same project. Then they have to be put back *very carefully* in the exact same spot. Mostly they were mountain landscapes, but I also had to scan in copies of a few images pulled from Days of Heaven, then a few more images from the DVD insert of same. I overheard Thomas referring to Rapsutina and one of their album covers w/r/t the same project, too... when I got home and looked at their website, the connection was obvious. All of this has me picturing imitation-needlework mountain landscape in the background slightly off kilter/distantly creepy feeling invitations. Guess I'll find out if I'm right eventually? Probably?
Second major task of the day was a bunch of photocopying randomly sized articles from the big, everything ever said or photographed relating to Anna Sui (pronounced all one syllable, like sweet without the T, I was corrected today), onto 8.5x11 sheets for the actual press book, which seems to be a much smaller binder with the most current or most important/prestigious press coverage. "Since you seem to be so good with the color machine..." was the prelude to the assignment. It was said in that oh so MattDad-ly way that causes over inner panic over whether it was sarcasm or actual praise or what.
Yes, this is definitely a person so used to trying to keep people off-balance just to see what they do that he probably doesn't realize he's doing it all the time anymore. He also seemed to be at the very least highly caffeinated this morning, or quite possibly on something. He does seem to take more frequent and lengthy bathroom breaks than the miniscule amount of liquids and food I see him take in would justify... hmph. Anyway. I will vociferously deny any of the previous speculation if pressed.
This mind-numbing and frustrating task required a lot of dogged persistence and wasted paper as the design office is in possession of a copier that is oh so helpful, thinks it is smarter than you, and also does not have fucking manual overrides to do things like tell it no you jackass machine I actually want it on the page like THIS not like THAT which did I mention resulted in a LOT of wasted paper? :D But apparently being even more picky and meticulous than he was being, sticking with it until ordered to go to lunch and then immediately returning to it was the right thing to do, because shortly thereafter I was pulled off that task and that tedious and annoying task set aside. Having a work ethic even though I'm not getting paid seems to be magic...
So after sending me off on an interdepartmental messenger task, it was blatantly obvious that he used that minute or two to ask the other intern what my name was. I went from being "dear" to being Christine with a slight fumble... that him being such a MattDadClone I have to wonder, was that another calculated move? I went from Dear doing the press book to Christine working on The Shoes Thing.
SHOOOOOOOOOOESSSSS. Apparently there are two photoshoots tentatively scheduled for this upcoming week, and people are starting to request certain pieces to be photographed, or ask if certain pieces are available. All the shoes from this fashion show are supposed to be in Anna's office, with the exception of a few that are already with a specific publicity agency. Except of course what's in there isn't going to actually match the list, and who knows if stuff was actually put away properly into the right box after the runway show.
So once another intern and I sorted them into stacks of boxes by style, I am going through the entire list, verifying that they are there. Which involves me making sure that the two shoes in the box are what the box actually says, making sure they are both the same size and a left and a right shoe, checking off ones that match up to the list, starring those that seem to be missing (one missing pair of boots is suspected to have been taken by Anna on her trip since they're her size, ha), and earning the annoyance of another intern when I brought Thomas a slightly damaged shoe because he was the one who ended up having to glue it once the mild frenzy to locate the appropriate glue was ended.
Yes, yes, very tedious but OMG SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES ARE SO FUCKING CUTE AND NICELY MADE IN PERSON I WANT THEM ALL THE END.
And it is long and detailed for several reasons: I want to remember every thing I did, every project I worked on or duty that I had, so later I can figure out the best ones to put on my resume once I'm done and consult one of our career people on how best to phrase the duties. I find learning about a designer's inspirations and work methods interesting, especially since she seems to be a big research junkie like me. An internship is not just collecting duties and tasks that you worked on for your resume but it's observing and learning how the business works and I want to make sure I remember that, too.
The first task of the day was to scan a bunch of images out of a book of 17th and 18th century embroidery samplers done by schoolgirls; apparently Anna selected them as reference for the graphic designer who will be doing the invitations for the fashion show. That was mildly interesting. She seems to be huge on old embroideries in general, as the otherwise dingy design office is full of various vintage and antique framed needlework pieces. Some are like paintings in thread, some are more like samplers, and one looks a lot like tsumami kanzashi flowers blind stitched to an embroidered backing.
(I'd love to take pictures, but I'm not stupid. I don't need it to have been put in my orientation notice that taking pictures in a design office, in the day and age of Forever 21 being able to steal your design and put out a knockoff before you can get your original out, would most likely result in instant dismissal.)
Then I guess since I didn't screw that one up too badly, I was set on *very carefully* taking
certain tacked-up images down from Anna's four inspiration/mood boards for the four capsules for an upcoming spring collection, and scanning those as reference for the same project. Then they have to be put back *very carefully* in the exact same spot. Mostly they were mountain landscapes, but I also had to scan in copies of a few images pulled from Days of Heaven, then a few more images from the DVD insert of same. I overheard Thomas referring to Rapsutina and one of their album covers w/r/t the same project, too... when I got home and looked at their website, the connection was obvious. All of this has me picturing imitation-needlework mountain landscape in the background slightly off kilter/distantly creepy feeling invitations. Guess I'll find out if I'm right eventually? Probably?
Second major task of the day was a bunch of photocopying randomly sized articles from the big, everything ever said or photographed relating to Anna Sui (pronounced all one syllable, like sweet without the T, I was corrected today), onto 8.5x11 sheets for the actual press book, which seems to be a much smaller binder with the most current or most important/prestigious press coverage. "Since you seem to be so good with the color machine..." was the prelude to the assignment. It was said in that oh so MattDad-ly way that causes over inner panic over whether it was sarcasm or actual praise or what.
Yes, this is definitely a person so used to trying to keep people off-balance just to see what they do that he probably doesn't realize he's doing it all the time anymore. He also seemed to be at the very least highly caffeinated this morning, or quite possibly on something. He does seem to take more frequent and lengthy bathroom breaks than the miniscule amount of liquids and food I see him take in would justify... hmph. Anyway. I will vociferously deny any of the previous speculation if pressed.
This mind-numbing and frustrating task required a lot of dogged persistence and wasted paper as the design office is in possession of a copier that is oh so helpful, thinks it is smarter than you, and also does not have fucking manual overrides to do things like tell it no you jackass machine I actually want it on the page like THIS not like THAT which did I mention resulted in a LOT of wasted paper? :D But apparently being even more picky and meticulous than he was being, sticking with it until ordered to go to lunch and then immediately returning to it was the right thing to do, because shortly thereafter I was pulled off that task and that tedious and annoying task set aside. Having a work ethic even though I'm not getting paid seems to be magic...
So after sending me off on an interdepartmental messenger task, it was blatantly obvious that he used that minute or two to ask the other intern what my name was. I went from being "dear" to being Christine with a slight fumble... that him being such a MattDadClone I have to wonder, was that another calculated move? I went from Dear doing the press book to Christine working on The Shoes Thing.
SHOOOOOOOOOOESSSSS. Apparently there are two photoshoots tentatively scheduled for this upcoming week, and people are starting to request certain pieces to be photographed, or ask if certain pieces are available. All the shoes from this fashion show are supposed to be in Anna's office, with the exception of a few that are already with a specific publicity agency. Except of course what's in there isn't going to actually match the list, and who knows if stuff was actually put away properly into the right box after the runway show.
So once another intern and I sorted them into stacks of boxes by style, I am going through the entire list, verifying that they are there. Which involves me making sure that the two shoes in the box are what the box actually says, making sure they are both the same size and a left and a right shoe, checking off ones that match up to the list, starring those that seem to be missing (one missing pair of boots is suspected to have been taken by Anna on her trip since they're her size, ha), and earning the annoyance of another intern when I brought Thomas a slightly damaged shoe because he was the one who ended up having to glue it once the mild frenzy to locate the appropriate glue was ended.
Yes, yes, very tedious but OMG SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES ARE SO FUCKING CUTE AND NICELY MADE IN PERSON I WANT THEM ALL THE END.