Philadelphia Magazine “Lady in Red”

From my experience working in the art department of the Philadelphia Magazine I’ve realized that I’ve gained a great knowledge of what it takes to be in a fast paced magazine company. There are different cycles within each month for when the magazine comes out. The first cycle is usually the beginning of the month which can be extremely slow but once we hit the middle of the month there are mandatory chaotic deadlines. Every day at the Philadelphia magazine can be different. There are some days where I will be asked to email and call in for photography and there are other days where I am asked to organize spread sheets. Then there are days where the art director will come out of his office and ask me my own opinion on certain layouts, front covers, typography, and illustrations, which I found to be very exciting. The magazine would be printed by spreadsheets onto the “wall” before the actual printed magazine came out and I loved seeing the different layouts before the issue came out. I also loved seeing what images I got in, from calling in, and knowing the directors took the photographs that took me awhile to get and they would use it for the features and articles.

Most importantly, getting images for interesting articles or sections of the magazine was worthwhile because I knew that, in the end, the overall layout of the page would look great. I especially enjoyed getting photography from well-known fashion designers because I knew that the designers, in the department, would make the layout of the “called in” photographs look great and turn it into something amazing. For instance, I especially enjoyed gathering photographs when it came to the Scout section of The Look page. The August issue had a specific page for “Lady in Red” and the excitement of gathering all those items by calling in and emailing specific contacts was uplifting. I love this specific page because we all worked together to get those photographs in for the designers and in the end it showed everyone’s achievement. What caught my eye for the Look page was how well the layout of the page looked and how I came to realize that I was an important factor in this creation.

This experience has taught me that I can do anything if I try my hardest. When I look back on the experience of collecting all the images for the “The Look” page I’ve came to recognize that I had a big part in making that page look visually pleasing. It was not just the main people in the art department who made that page look great, it was also me because I was the one who found the images. It is exciting to know that as an intern you can make such a big impact on your follow colleagues with certain projects. I have enjoyed my experience wile working at Philadelphia Magazine and the people around me. They have encouraged me that I can get anything if I put my heart into it.