Final Post: Blog Reflection

I enjoyed the time I spent working with my mentor and colleagues. For my physical project, I designed an Android game for smartphones, because my paper was on The Evolution of Handheld Gaming. The game itself was a solo project based on relation to my research paper, but my mentor provided me with constructive feedback and help when I needed it.

At the start of the Capstone Project, my colleagues and I were still confused about what we were actually doing. This was probably our main challenge for half the project. Our initial idea was to design and create smartphone applications, but with the development and time frame we had, we wouldn't be able to finish a professionally made one. Another challenge would be meeting up, since my colleagues and I had school, work and clubs/recreational activities; our mentor had to work his main job.

Our mentor Barry explained that we would help him with his work, and he would help us with ours. So we began our hours shadowing and seeing what he did. We sat in his conference meetings with his team to see how they were strategically planning a fall season release of a new upcoming clothing line. We watched him take photographs of his products to put on the internet as a stock image. Later, we moved on to assembling his product, one of them called the Prescription package. Barry taught us an import lesson in advertising and how it could be made cheap using something as simple as stickers. We helped him promote his brand Design Rehab using this method. He branded us his intern team shortly afterwards.

Personally, I feel that i've learned a lot of valuable business lessons. I learned how branding + design relate to business, how a small logo can make a large impact, and how business is ran in different ways. Barry taught me personally that "It's not always about the type of work you do, but who do you your work with." This taught me that networking and connections can get you really far in business, no matter what type of business it is.

In the future, I hope to stay with Design Rehab as an intern (for now) and work with my colleagues and Barry. It will be the foundation my colleagues and I can begin with and use to build our own businesses someday; but to build a business, you must be learn from and be apprenticed by one first.