A Coral's Voice

Diana Barta
Illustration and Visual Media

For much of the summer I was working on my portfolio and researching internship opportunities mainly in the entertainment, specifically video games and animation, industry. I spent a lot of time tailoring my portfolio by creating pieces and projects that would suit each company. I secured an internship at the end of August for a startup video game company and I will work for them as a concept artist intern, even though I almost didn't apply. They listed the position as concept artist/illustrator for a video game, and in the description they stated that the intern will create illustrations for cars, characters and worlds as it will be for a car game. Now, I have never really drawn cars in the mind I will be designing them as a job, and I had very little experience drawing them at all, nonetheless I still applied. Fortunately, during my skype interview with the company, they stated that they would like for me to only do environment sketches that will be used by the 3D modelers and that they have already hired a full time concept artist to draw the cars. Inside I was so relieved, as I didn't think I could suit the internship, but for environments I am much more confident in my skills and would be much more efficient. This is something that made me excited since it was honestly one of the kinds of jobs or experiences I would have loved to do for the DPS year and I gave me a boost of confidence and motivation for future applications.

This event really made me realize that even though companies might be looking for something specific you never really know if they are also looking for additional skills or that you might be good for another position. Only they know that and you can only give yourself the opportunity or even the chance if you apply regardless of how well you exactly fit the description. Of course, having your portfolio tailored is very important, and I know this specific industry is very competitive and hard to break into. That is why I want my portfolio to be ready for when I start applying again for my next internship as this one will only last till the end of December/early January. I will be aiming to get an internship in America, and I am already researching what kind of internship opportunities there are for later. I want to understand the kind of companies and work they do, so I can clear my head from distractions and get a clear vision of what kind of projects I should still add to my portfolio that can aid in making me a good fit for the internship. I have learned that my portfolio really needs to be straightforward in the sense that it has to show what I can do and what I want to do at that company, essentially very focused.

Outside of internships, there are endless possibilities of how I can gain experiences and understand the design world. I am really drawn to the power of Instagram, and there is so much to explore on it when you have a design perspective. I recently took part of a campaign on Instagram. There a lot of ways you can examine campaigns. I think that it allows for the knowledge and understanding of other parts of the world or different communities to collide, this brings about discussion and more importantly collaborating which otherwise would not have happened. What is an even more unique feature of social media, is the ability to comment on things, anyone anywhere can comment on anything. Everyone can input their views regardless if it is offensive, rude, exclusive, skeptical, informative, or supportive. Now, design has always been an outlet to comment on things, so shouldn't designers take advantage of this digital age to reach diverse audiences and connect them with concepts. Humans are drawn to visuals, now design can push it further and make an impact on people. The Glowing Gone campaign did just that with the new information regarding the fluorescent colors corals have as a last resort to survive the warming oceans. The campaign is a collaboration between Adobe and Pantone, where they created these new glowing colors that are then used by designers to create visuals that spread the word and push the concept through the community. Not only did this campaign comment on certain issues it also revealed the shocking situation through beautiful visuals. The coral's colors is its voice, the same way a designer uses its visuals as their voice or opinion on a subject. I also joined this campaign for many reasons and it made me start to think of the different ways I can explore the design world and expand my knowledge through these experiences. I want to use this platform to learn not only new software but also push my skills of design since I have mainly been focused on illustration throughout university.

There's still a lot I have to plan and think about for the coming year, such as my self-initiated project, freelancing, and my thesis, all of which I want to start thinking about once I settle in for my first internship.

My three pieces for the Glowing Gone campaign.