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- Making the most of an internship
Making the most of an internship
Michelle Pavey
Strategy Director
If you have read any of our previous blogs you will know that we are pretty keen on opening the door to the creative industry and helping people develop their skills.
During the summer of 2017, we had a wonderful intern join us for 6 weeks. Curtis was proactive, using his initiative and passion for design to contact our Head of Design, Chris Bailey, to kickstart an internship. During his time with Kind, he worked closely with the team to build his skill set and soak up any knowledge he could from a creative agency.
“Designing at Kind was my first proper internship, after meeting Chris Bailey at DXN. Talking about his process, principles of design, colour theory and typography hugely inspired my work and what I am doing now.”
After this internship, he continued his studies in design at Nottingham College, fast forward two years and he has almost completed his course. We were thrilled when Curtis came back and asked us to host his end of year design showcase for him. For us, it was really great to see a rewarding outcome for a young person who had worked hard to progress his career and we were really pleased to be a small part of his journey.
“Curtis has been a pleasure to mentor. To his credit, he approached me after I gave a lecture at his college and our friendship has grown from there. His passion, drive and enthusiasm have inspired me and seeing him progress has been humbling. He’s already secured himself a full-time position before fully leaving education and that speaks volumes about his work ethic and character.”
On Thursday 2nd May, Kind and Nottingham College invited a number of creative professionals from across the city to join us to view Curtis’ work and celebrate with him. We were lucky to be joined by Curtis’s family, friends and people from UniDays, JH, Page+Looker, Isaac Powell Design, Studio Seventeen, Nottingham College and CPMG. Thank you to everyone that came along!
What did we learn from this internship? 🔗
Internships are about way more than having someone make the tea. When you get the right person join you with the right attitude, you are not only giving something back to someone who needs help but you gain so much in return.
A proactive and committed approach is necessary from both the intern and the person responsible for them. When both are fully invested as Curtis and Chris were, it makes for a very productive internship and consequently a great relationship between designers.
It doesn’t matter whether an intern joins you for a week, a month or a year, keeping the point of contact open is beneficial for both the intern and yourself and can leave room for great future collaborations.
And finally… 🔗
Thank you to Curtis for being a brilliant intern, inspiring our team to continue to invest time in helping others and for celebrating your achievements with us. We cannot wait to follow your design journey and wish you every success going forward!
You can follow Curtis’s work on Instagram, Dribbble or Twitter