I'm Philip Sutherland, a creative professional specializing in design and interactive applications currently pursuing a degree in Visual Art & Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology. I found CIS Abroad through my college’s abroad office and had a wonderful time on the Intern in Barcelona program!
Redesigning a company’s brand is an intensive process. It requires flexibility, entrepreneurial savvy, aesthetic sensibility, and a lot of patience for trial and error. If that sounds like a lot, it is - but it’s nothing compared to doing it all right after being dropped into a foreign country!
Jumping Into a New Challenge
During my time in Barcelona, I was in charge of rebranding eRoots, an energy consulting startup with projects across the globe. The first step in the process was to get acquainted with my client and the context of the international energy industry, which was way out of my comfort zone as a student of the arts. However, with the help of my coworkers and supervisor, I was able to get a survey of this dynamic and growing sector along with a peek at the inner workings of the international business world.
From there, the aesthetic exercise of designing the visual scheme begins. For a venture that caters to a truly global market, you need to consider facets of design from a multicultural perspective. What associations do certain colors have in world cultures besides your own? Will key messages and phrases translate smoothly into different languages? What tools and platforms do businesses use to communicate on an international scale? All of these questions and more factor into the fundamental design choices behind a company’s image.
Paying Attention to the Little Things
In the midst of this process, my relaxed work hours and flexible schedule allowed me to explore the city of Barcelona and make excursions to see other parts of Spain and Catalonia. The big attractions were nice, but in my opinion the most valuable experiences were the everyday interactions that embody culture in a living, contemporary moment. Things as small as buying groceries, taking public transport, or reading a local newspaper can give you a sense of a place’s soul in a way that the flashy monuments and commercial hubs don’t capture. At the end of the day, a culture is defined by the people who live it, and to ignore them is to miss a vital part of the story.
Wrapping It All Up
Back at the internship, after the planning is complete and the groundwork has been laid, the time comes to execute the ideas. The assets need to be adaptable to be deployed online, in print, and on the brick-and-mortar locations of the enterprise. This requires a versatile knowledge of different mediums, standards and tools - especially if you’re doing it as a one-man team like me! Throughout the process, it’s critical to consult with the client and iterate upon ideas to arrive at a final product that impresses and delights. No message is delivered in a vacuum, and in my case, insights from my multicultural team of coworkers brought ideas and associations to my attention that I never would have reached from my perspective alone.
Finally, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing your efforts come to fruition and deploying the new assets in a total overhaul of the company’s previous image. It’s a combination of a job well done and the end of a journey, with all the lessons learned along the way. Even though it can seem daunting if you don’t take things one step at a time, an internship abroad is an experience that I would recommend to anyone and one that I will certainly never forget.
