Digital Fringe
Hello, hello. My name is Patty Wakelee, I’m a Senior graduating in May (ay!) and I am finishing up my time as FringeArts’ Graphic Design Intern. Where do I begin? I feel like I’ve spent so much time in that swivel chair clicking away in Adobe. As FringeArts’ only graphic designer, I had a lot of power placed in my hands and at first it was a bit terrifying. I was responsible for creating so much content, including postcards for shows, posters, signs, tv ads, invitations, email layouts, and a lil adventure of my own–GIFS. I found myself working pretty quickly through projects and was left with a healthy amount of free time as I waited for the next task or feedback on my work.
The Marketing Coordinator, Anna, mentioned her interest in GIFS at a staff meeting I attended, and I thought, hey, why not? Let’s give this a try. So I watched tutorials on YouTube, Anna sent me articles almost daily on GIFS and GIF development, and I opened up Photoshop and experimented away. Initially, I just made a bunch of reaction GIFS based off reoccurring acts at FringeArts, which was simple. Drop a video in, crop it to a certain spot, and boom: a GIF. Then I took a whirl at creating some from scratch when Anna asked me for some content for a website she was building about the digital platform of the Fringe Festival, Digital Fringe. Now, what I created are certainly not the best or most complex things in the world. I definitely spent way more time than I probably had to building them, but hey, I did it. I created a side project for myself to keep productive and working, learned something new, and even got some used!
What I learned, besides how to create a GIF in Photoshop, was to try new things and challenge yourself at an internship. This is a place to learn! You can receive valuable feedback from people other than your peers and professors, so why not try something different out? Now is the time! Now is your time! FringeArts provided me with authority to explore design in many different ways, and that is something I really loved about the time I spent there. Everyone was very open to my ideas and concepts, and it made taking small risks or playing with a design more enjoyable and worthwhile. With all that said, I leave you with a vector vintage computer (that took me way too long to create in Illustrator only to pixelate to fit with the theme of Digital Fringe, sigh) GIF that was made entirely by yours truly. I know, it’s not a very wild, super impressive animation here. But hey! I made a GIF! Although I am still confused on how to pronounce it correctly….
