All of the interns are assigned an intern project to work on with 8-10 others throughout our 10 weeks here. We’re all a mix of backgrounds (Art Directors, Copywriters, Designers, Motion Graphics, Strategy, etc). At the end of the ten weeks we’ll be presenting our project to a bunch of agency people as well as the other interns. Because this project is on top of our other work here, it often gets pushed to after work hours or squeezed in between meetings during the day. We’re finally getting to the point of making noticeable progress which is always nice. Up until now we’ve been focusing mostly on the brainstorming stages of the project. Gathering ideas and researching lots of things in order to help shape our final direction. It’s definitely way more on the strategy side of a project than I’ve ever worked. Most projects in college, especially for strictly design classes, spent maybe one or two days concepting and the rest was spent sketching and really focusing on the creative aspects of it.
Yesterday’s evening commute provided more blogging material than I needed for the day.
After another long day at work, I was all set to leave the office by 8, make it to Trader Joe’s to pick up something for dinner and then get home earlier than I did the previous night. Except then I got on the wrong train. Of course, I didn’t realize that it was the wrong train until I was two stops down the line and headed in the completely wrong direction. I should have probably noticed that I didn’t really fit in on the train and some people were looking at me kind of funny – these trains have serious demographic differences. Needless to say, I quickly hopped off and headed in the reverse direction back to where I came from. The stop wasn’t a transfer type stop so I couldn’t just walk over the bridge and head back on the other side. It requires an outdoor transfer which apparently my card would not allow me to do.
At this point I was completely frustrated (and hungry) and just wanted to get back on the train. I tried to explain my situation to the (confused looking) CTA man who could not seem to grasp that I got on the wrong train and had already used my card at that station. He kept saying “wait so you already left here and then came back?!” Um, yeah dude. My bad. Eventually he did let me through the side door and I was on my way. The ride itself was pretty rough as well. Normally there is a fair amount of shaking and rattling especially when going around all of the turns in the tracks. Yesterday seemed particularly bad and at one point this lady went flying backwards (cursing loudly) and almost landed on top of the man in front of me. Let’s just say that I was pretty glad when I was finally able to get off at my stop.
Life After Bricks 