To help you decide whether a graphic design internship might be worth your while, we spoke with the following interns:
Let's dive in!
As a graphic design intern, you'll spend most of your time making graphics.
At the event management company, our graphic design intern made graphics for marketing and branding purposes.
I mainly made marketing materials. The company put on events, such as plays, so I would be asked to created things to advertise these upcoming plays. Think: flyers as well as graphics for emails and social media posts.
I also made brand assets, like graphics for podcasts, email banners, any type of branding.
– Graphic design intern @ event management company
At the e-learning company, our graphic design intern worked on visuals and layouts for training materials.
The company I interned at made e-learning courses along with some print materials too. Their clients were corporations as well as some smaller companies.
I got to work on projects for Johnson & Johnson and Victoria's Secret. A lot of what I worked on was for those companies' compliance trainings. Compliance is basically when a company wants to make sure their employees understand rules like federal laws or company expectations. Since this can be a lot of information, they'll want visuals.
This is this company comes in. There's a graphic design team, which makes visuals to make the material more engaging and easier-to-understand. So our clients would tell us what information they wanted to include and it was up to us to create the visuals, infographics, and the formatting for the courses. We'd use Figma, Illustrator, and inDesign.
When we were done with that, we'd pass our designs onto the developers who would make them interactive and bring the course to life.
The company also helped make employee handbooks and PowerPoint presentations so we'd create visuals for these too.
– Graphic design intern @ e-learning company
The graphic design intern at their college made the widest range of materials.
I was a graphic design intern at the marketing department at my college.
30% of the time, I was making flyers. All flyers that would be posted on campus had to go through us. For example, we got a brand new library, so I created flyers to promote the library that got posted in dorms around campus.
30% of the time, I made icons and logos. For example, I made icons for my college's Instagram stories. I also made logos for student-run clubs. Clubs would make a request for a design. I'd generally give them a few initial designs for them to choose from.
30% of the time, I made social media graphics. Different departments at the university would have separate social media accounts. I made graphics for one department's social media pages. The main point here was to keep the graphics simple but eye-catching to attract students' attention and get them to read the caption text underneath for more details.
10% of the time I did a bunch of other things.
- Colleges make all kinds of promotional items (think t-shirts and mintboxes), so I got to help out with the designs for those as well.
- Banners for official emails, like "A message from the Office of the President" or "Timely warning."
- Printing and posting: I would print and post flyers on bulletin boards around campus. If any materials were custom-sized, I'd cut them into the right size using a cutting mat and an X-Acto knife. I also cut booklets and stapled them together.
– Graphic design intern @ a liberal arts college
Before diving into the graphics themselves, you might need to do some research and brainstorming to decide what to create.
Our graphic design intern at the e-learning company would carry out this type of work with a senior designer.
I did a lot of brainstorming with my mentor. I worked directly under one of the senior designers, who was my mentor the entire time, so we went through all these projects together.
We'd research, ideate together. Then she'd pass me a starting file and it was up to me to finish it however I wanted. We'd get feedback from other team members and the manager.
When my internship ended, my mentor was like "I'm going to miss talking to my little buddy every day and getting to shoot ideas back and forth." It was really fun for everybody.
– Graphic design intern @ e-learning company
Unfortunately, the other company provided very little time for the intern to think about what she needed to make.
The company gave me very little notice. I remember one time, I only had three hours for research, ideation, and turnaround. Also I had to create a lot of things from scratch, since the company didn't provide a lot in terms of brand or style guidelines.
Because of this, I can't say made anything there that I'm actually proud of.
– Graphic design intern @ event management company
Despite their very different experiences, our interns felt their internships were worth it. The e-learning company intern says she gained real skills.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. I wish I could have stayed longer! Even though the internship was remote, the team made me feel super welcome and included and I'm considering going back for a second internship in the spring.
I also learned a bunch. Here are some of my biggest takeaways.
- I learned what type of graphic design I might want to do in the future. Compliance training, e-learning, tools for corporate education. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but I had a blast. And I could see myself going back with them or with another e-learning company, something I'd never considered if I hadn't put myself out here and tried it.
- I also gained some skills that would be applicable to UX design, which I'm also interested in. UX internships tend to be competitive, but I think some of the skills I've learned here are transferrable and can help me land one in the future.
Outside of design, I gained some professional skills.
- Organizational skills: I like to think I'm organized, but this experience taught me that I can take that up another notch. For instance, when I pass off work to other teams, I need to organize and name my files so it's easy for them to find what they're looking for. If they have to open every last folder to find a specific thing, that slows down the pipeline for everyone.
- How to work efficiently: Sometimes a client might be a bit demanding and ask you to send them a first draft on the same day. Coming from a graphic design background, you might get hung up on small details like how round we make the corners of some buttons – the kind of stuff clients may not even notice! So you learn to do the best in the little time you have.
I also feel like I developed a "network." As an introvert, I was always scared of networking. But I realized that you can build a network organically by working with people. Even though my internship was remote, I got a lot of support from my colleagues. They gave me great advice on the last day of my internship and we're even going to meet up in person this summer!
– Graphic design intern @ e-learning company
The college campus intern feels that her design internship strengthened her portfolio on top of teaching her some skills.
My internship helped me make my portfolio stronger since it gave me a lot of different pieces to put into it. Colleges have a lot of different kinds of graphic design needs!
I also picked up a few professional skills.
- Teamwork: I worked with other student designers who were also in the internship. For example, for one logo, we brainstormed different ideas and then combined our ideas into the final logo.
- Feedback: I learned to not take feedback personally. If a client (like a student club) has feedback, I'll implement it as much as possible and not take it personally.
- Time management: There were deadlines, so it got me used to working in fast-paced environment.
– Graphic design intern @ a liberal arts college
The event management company intern didn't have a positive experience but still feel she learned from it.
If I learned anything it's to value my own time and sanity as an intern and student.
The internship was honestly a lot of work for an intern. It's like they wanted to hire a creative director on an intern budget. Also, I didn't see any form of payment until shortly after the internship ended.
Me being a naïve first-time intern, I kept trying to hold out hope and even try to make excuses on their behalf.
If I encountered a company like this again, I'd be faster to speak up or leave. If they feel like they can get away with something once or twice, they'll keep pushing it. And if a company doesn't care for their interns (who're there to learn and do the best they can), that speaks volumes about them as an employer. No matter the position, we should all be valued members of the team and that's how it should always be.
While it was a bad experience, I'm glad I got it early on in my career. Now I know exactly what I don't want, so I'll no longer go into a work experience blind and hoping for the best.
– Graphic design intern @ event management company
Head on over to How to break into graphic design as a student.
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