seenkinginparis

[seenkinginparis]

Invader

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my obsession with the street artist, Space Invader. I love him. I love walking around in Paris and randomly seeing his work on the street. It always gets a laugh out of me especially when he’s being cheeky life putting up a rocket on ‘Rue de la Roquette’ or putting up a robber with a sack of money over his shoulders next to a bank or a rat above a cat cafe. I’ve been taking photographs of his work and compiling them on this page. It’s not organised very well but at least there’s some sort of documentation.  https://seenkinginparis.tumblr.com/invaderwashere

[seenkinginparis]

17- 01-05

As predicted, I wrapped up working on the ecole illustrations by Wednesday and very eagerly came to work on Thursday to work on another project with Briac to find out that he didn’t actually have any work for me. I managed to weasle some work from him and prepared two presentations for him for a client meeting. I also came up with some ideas for an object that the company might be able to give their employees to announce their new branding.  I have also been talking to the company in India that needed help with the app design. It felt weird to be talking to the client directly and knowing exactly what they want after working at an agency for four months that doesn't bother telling its interns what the full brief is. It has given gave me a better understanding of the needs of a client and how one should speak to a client as well. We have finally received a wireframe from them so I will most probably start work on that next week with Tanguy’s help. 

[seenkinginparis]

15 & 16

For the last two weeks I have only been working on the illustrations for ecole. I don’t really have much to say about it. It’s extremely repetitive and I am extremely frustrated and bored with the subject. I need different work. Working on the illustrations is not the worst thing but my only issue is that there’s no feedback or a learning experience of any sort with this project. Either the illustration works or it doesn’t and I illustrate something else in the same isometric style and colour palette. After 130 artboards, I can safely say without jinxing it that I am almost done and will only require three more working days on this.  One thing I am happy about tho is the fact that I was forced to use Illustrator for this project. In Lab 2, when I was learning the softwares I made extra care to learn Photoshop really well but it is a very technical software. InDesign has always had my heart because of how easy to use and orderly the software is. For some weird reason, I never paid any attention to Illustrator and in these past two weeks, I have learnt so much about Illustrator and how cool it can be. I’ve even customised shortcuts according to my usage.  Praachi and I were also supposed to create designs for some new mousepads for ecole but because I was busy with the illustrations, Mihika asked Praachi to execute my idea as well.

[seenkinginparis]

15- 01-05

I think somebody at work has been reading my blog. I was bombarded with work this week! I was put on three projects: the creation of illustrations for EIL for both, the France and India website, 73 pictograms for Naval and maybe some changes to their website and Clement asked me to take lead on a digital project of an Indian client based in Kolkata.  On Monday, I worked on finishing touches for the logos I had created last week. Praachi was ‘at my disposal’ for that whole day as I had created the logos and they had put her on the same project for just a day a alfter all the work was done... See what I mean by poor management? For the next two days, I worked on completing the pictograms. I had to create them on Sketch as Tanguy wanted them to be pixel perfect. It’s easier to use Sketch now. It’s quite user friendly. On the third day, Audrey  (the person I am working with on this project) asked me if I would like to help her work on the website for which I made the pictograms as she thought Tanguy was “a fool”. I’m not going to lie, that really made my whole week. A senior person in office telling an intern that she rather work with the intern than the digital lead is a little sad tho.  For the last two days I was working on the ecole illustrations. Andreas was working with Praachi this week and he was sitting at our desk and he started talking to me and asking me what I’ve been doing at Seenk. I showed him some of the logos I’d recently made and he was very impressed. He said I had made tremendous progress very quickly and that my logos are a lot stronger now. He said I showed a lot of potential. Needles to say, I did not stop smiling that whole day or even the week. I’m smiling while typing this out.  On a side note, I attended a Hozier concert on Friday and it was such a good experience. I cried like four times.

[seenkinginparis]

14- 01-05

So, the strategy week might get postponed to next week as we are needed on the branding team. I was working with Tanguy the entire week (x_x). I was supposed to help him with a logo for a sub brand of a brand I worked on before. They have come up with the most ridiculous name for it. Terrible puns seems to be Seenks go to name choice.

For the last three days of the week i was supposed to work on the UX design of an app and it was going to be my first solo project in the agency! However, Clement wasn’t in office this week and couldn’t provide some details of the project. I might work on it the next week then. 

So, I basically worked on the Naval logos. For the first two days. I was working on logos for the wrong name! That was fun. Tanguy didn’t bother telling me that the client changed the name. And then he decided to disappear for the last three days and not give me any feedback. I really don’t like working with Tanguy. Every project I have worked with him so far has been with his absence, an incomplete brief and no constructive feedback. 

Really hoping I get to work with another design leader next week. 

[seenkinginparis]

13- 04-05

I spent the last two days of this week reworking the logos with the help of Andreas and working on the project with Briac.

[seenkinginparis]

13- 03

Mihika got me to do some work for the EIL website today while I was waiting for the meeting to happen. If I had known I’d come all the way to Paris and still be working on ecole, I’d never have come. Haha. It was fun tho! The files are an absolute mess and I did a few illustrations for the website as well. I’ve been added to the Slack workspace for this project and I have to come up with a few more illustrations regarding this. I’m very low-key excited. 

The logos I presented in today's meeting very all type based. I feel like Photoshop and type are two things I have learnt the most in this internship, among other things. I actually am very interested in type and would love to study and understand it further. It’s incredible how precise and mathematical type is. I’ve been reading a book on the anatomy of type as well! 

They picked two logo options in the meeting and now I have to develop those further so that we can present it to the client soon. 

[seenkinginparis]

13- 02

I continued work on the logo and also helped Vincent with some Vinci work. I’ve been juggling more than one project on a daily basis and it feels nice to be trusted and to actually have that much work to do. 

There’s a meeting with Andreas and Briac tomorrow to discuss the logos. I hope they like atleast one out of the 15 options I will be presenting.

[seenkinginparis]

13- 01

First day back at Seenk after the vacation and everybody is feeling extremely restless and is clearly not in the mood to get back to work!

We started off our day with some very good news - Clement and Baptiste in strategy spoke to Fred about Praachi and my interest in the Strategy department and he has given us the green light to alternate working there for two weeks in the month of September! We’re extremely excited.

We started on a new project as well. We have to create an identity for a company that previously dealt with recycling furniture and now wants to expand into recycling and sorting objects within the home space. We started with some sketches. 

While I was working on that I had to create a presentation for a client with Briac. I really like Briac as a boss. He explains the brief extremely well and you don’t leave a meeting with him feeling more confused than before. He’s extremely fun to work with as well as he respects you as a designer and what you bring to the table. I wish to work with him on future projects as I feel like we get along well. 

[seenkinginparis]

10- 01-05

It’s the week before Praachi and I leave for our two week vacation to Germany and Netherlands and the entire office is empty! There are a total of seven people at work, including a new intern. He. Does. Not. Stop. Talking. I swear, he talks more than Aashna and I combined. Ugh. 

Briac got me off the Aasgard project as he wanted me to help him with another project. This week I alternated working with him and Tanguey. Oh, and making loads of origami as there was hardly any work. Praachi and I were mostly just sitting at our desktops playing pictionary. 

It feels like this internship is playing out in reverse. We started off with major work and now we’re hoping somebody notices we don’t have work and gives us something to do. Maybe, people don’t like our work and that’s why we’re not getting any? Or maybe Seenk is just not very organised as an agency. Who knows?

I need to work on my dragon, clearly but thankfully I got two more months of no work at Seenk to help me out with that. 

[seenkinginparis]

9- 01-05

This week we continued work on the heater company. They are never going to like anything presented to them. Ever. 

Clement and Aurelien had picked a direction for me to work on for them. I’m very proud to say now that my Photoshop skills are amazing. I took three completely unrelated photographs for one of my posters and merged them and edited them to look like one. It was a good week on the technical front but quite dead on the creative and social one. Half the office has already left for their summer vacation and the only conversations you hear around work now are what everybody is doing on their vacation. 

[seenkinginparis]

8- 05

Worked on some more pictograms today. 

[seenkinginparis]

This agency likes to drink. If you end up working at Seenk anytime after 6 30, the agency provides you with wine. Whenever asked about Seenk, the first answer is always great atmosphere. This is what they mean. Great atmosphere for drinking. I love it, feel right at home. 

[seenkinginparis]

8- 04

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0V6P7miMwP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Sheesh, the paparazzi is obsessed with us. Haha, just kidding. This was Seenks way of welcoming us on board. They should also be putting up my ‘inspiration of the day’ post soon. 

The heating company has not gotten back to Aurelien yet so we pestered everybody until Tanguy gave us work. We had to design a logo for a subsidiary. It was a super fun easy task. I came up with ten logos in 2 hours and Tanguy picked one out of those. I reworked that logo and presented two variations of it like he wanted. 

Aline, the strategist, is leaving the company today. Praachi and I will miss her. She was one of the few people who spoke English. Her leaving party is this evening and because it was 42 degrees. there were water guns and water sprays and watermelon and lemonade and ofc beer and wine to get through the evening. It was a really fun party and we ended up staying will 12 in the night. We would have stayed longer but the metro would’ve shut. 

[seenkinginparis]

8- 03

You’d think after three years of school we would have had an assignment in which we were asked to design pictograms. Mais, no! 

I designed pictograms for the first time today and I had to use Sketch to ensure that they were pixel perfect. Really regret not paying attention in Aruns class when he taught us Sketch but in my defence, I used Figma.

It was a struggle but I’d like to think that I’m adept at using Sketch and making pictograms now.

[seenkinginparis]

8- 01-02

This week has probably been the first time that I have been assigned project per day. Usually during planning, they tell me what I have to do till Wednesday and then they randomly hand out assignments to us. So, we’re already off to a good start!

I continued work on the campaign for the heater company. I ended up presenting two ideas by the end of Tuesday and they seemed quite happy with it. I have noticed a certain change in my method and speed of working, that might have to do with the fact that we practically do the exact same thing every week with a different client/brief. 

Aurelien has a meeting with the company tomorrow so we will continue work on Thursday. Let’s hope that goes well!

[seenkinginparis]

7- 01-05

This week has been awful. Extremely awful.

I have noticed a pattern in the projects that Praachi and I assigned to. They always come to us after the fifth round of the client not approving what Seenkhas presented to them. Whenever they want a fresh set of eyes, we’re up which is frustrating because they will turn down our ideas and tell us what to do.

We have been working on the same project for five days. We have to come up with a design language for Scandinavian heater retailers.

They are the most frustrating and rudest clients ever.  What they want is so contradictory. They want something that is warming but uses coldness as an irony...um what?

Praachi and I have been going mental understanding what the client wants. We’ve presented so many different options to Clement and Aurelien but in the end, they just told us what they want and we’re just supposed to execute it. Whenever we present something to them, they’ll always be expecting something else which they haven’t informed us of so our ideas obviously don’t work.

The client not knowing what they want or what's best for them is not as much of an issue as miscommunication in the team.

Oof, this has been a rant. I’m dreading the thought of having to go to work tomorrow as we’re still going to be working on this project. I hope next week will be better.

I think I’m just tired of doing the exact same thing for two months now. I feel like shifting to Strategy now might be a good decision.