Creativity and Sustainability

During this fall semester of 2021, I have interned for Grid Magazine, a Philadelphia-based magazine that focuses on sustainability at a local level. Because I am an Advertising major with an Art Direction concentration, I was brought on board as a Design Marketer. I was given creative duties such as creating layouts for the magazine and cover pages that would then go to print, designing social posts and e-blasts to reach the Grid following online, redesigning old documents to bring new life to them (such as an advertising price sheet, for example), as well as non-design related duties such as attending and assisting in photoshoots for the Grid YouTube channel and tracking the magazine’s distribution locations throughout the city.

Throughout my time at Grid, I have learned a lot about thinking within the context of print when it comes to design as most of my experience comes from thinking about design in a digital sense. I have also learned about the inner workings of small teams and local businesses; Grid is run by 10 or so people out of a small apartment in Chinatown, an experience that I could image would have been much different from an agency space. Because of this setting, I was able to work very closely with the individuals that fill each role to see what duties they take on and how their roles are significant to the completion of each month’s issue (from publisher to designer, accountant, social media manager, videographer, etc).

In general, working here has allowed me to sharpen my skills in communicating with those I am working with, working on a team, receiving criticism to further better a piece of work and its effectiveness, designing marketing materials to fit a brand’s already existent creative narrative, and work within a given set of deadlines.

With all of this said, however, the aspect of working with Grid that will be the most memorable to me (and my personal favorite) is getting to have read the stories and connect with the people we were writing about. Meeting these local citizens and getting to see the good they are doing for not just this city, but the planet as a whole, in their own creative ways was truly special.