Connecting with Nine Dots

Hey there! My name is Claire Bustos and I am a junior Advertising student, concentrating in Art Direction. This Spring Semester, I had the pleasure to intern at Nine Dots as their graphic designer. Located in Center City, Ninedots is a small advertising agency owned and run by Geoffrey Klein. The media agency provides creative services such as graphic design, animation, video, social media, and marketing to its clients. Most of the clients that they work with are small brands and we help them set their brand identity and/or be consistent with their branding and content.

As a graphic design intern, my role was to create any type of graphics for Nine Dots themselves and their clients, like logos, social media posts, brochures, etc. So far, I have created and designed a lot of things for a few of his clients like logos, icons, social media posts, and other graphics. What’s really a rewarding feeling is seeing my work get put out there for people to see. For instance, I created icons for the company, RDCL Superfoods, and Geoffrey showed me these icons on their website and their brochures. It may not seem like a huge thing, but this was my first time seeing my work that I did for a client get put out and it was so cool! I am really looking forward to seeing more of this happening. 

Alongside Nine Dots, I also helped Geoffrey Klein with his own personal public speaking brand. He has done a few TED talks on topics that will help entrepreneurs and their bussinesses succeed. 

I am so glad I decided to take this opportunity to intern for Nine Dots, because it has been a great first internship experience. It isn’t a big corporate company, but I find that works well in my favor, especially since it is my first internship, because there’s not a lot of pressure than if I were to intern in those bigger companies. I was able to work closely with the CEO, which I probably wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to if I were at those other big companies. This internship has a relaxed and fun environment, which was great because I felt more comfortable to express myself and my ideas. Also, Geoffrey and my fellow interns helped make the work environment enjoyable with their positive attitude, team work, and encouragement. 

Moreover, I felt like there was more room to make mistakes and learn from them without the pressure of a big corporate company. But of course, it’s important to practice professionalism and work hard to improve skills in order to prepare for what’s to come in the future. 

Ninedots has been such an enriching experience so far from an industry level to a personal level. I enjoyed every day that I came in and worked with everyone there. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, our time in person was abruptly cut short. It made me sad, because I was always eager to come into the office. But, with the time I had in person and through online transition, I am happy with my time at Nine Dots. Now, I am excited and eager to apply what I have learned with the agency elsewhere and improve myself and my skills further. Thank you, Geoffrey and Nine Dots for everything.