This summer I interned at Workplace Strategies, they are a small firm based out of Winston Salem and have been in Winston Salem for almost a decade. They are a commercial interior design company with a vision to bring an innovative practice model to the design world.
The office, one of the best environments to work at and become a great designer.
For the first part of my internship I did research for The EcoLens Group, based out of the Workplace Strategies office and managed by Peter Marsh and his partner, Dan Fogel. I started a blog to direct traffic to their main website, linked here. Most of my research was based on finding sustainable cities or researching how cities in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee etc... are greening their cities and counties. The main reason I did this research was as a resource of information on the areas for Dan Fogel, President of Ecolens and Peter Marsh, Vice President of Ecolens, before they presented their company to these cities and counties. I was also asked to put company folders together for The Ecolens Group, these folders consisted of information on the company, founders, objectives and contact information. The last week that I helped Peter Marsh we put an RFP together to apply for a job coming from the City of Charlotte. It was an exciting experience because as students we only do design work and leave our boss to finding the jobs and applying for those design jobs that the designers work on for months at a time. I found inspiration from Peter Marsh because as we finished this job proposal (RFP) he said that applying for a job is an art in itself.
The second part of my internship I actually was a resource for the designers. I researched materials and helped the designers put material and color pallets together for a few jobs they were working on. One of those projects was for The Community Physicians at Peacehaven. Besides putting material schemes and pallets, I helped Michelle Bottenus, lead designer for the project, measure areas of Peacehaven so she can put the existing plans of the office in AutoCad. After several meetings and revisions Michelle had a final and approved design for Peacehaven. The project was completed after I put together a Finishes Binder for the project and I moved on to my next project.
Two schemes that Michelle Bottenus and I generated for The Community Physicians at Peacehaven.
Overall this experience allowed me to grow as a designer and gave me an insight to what I will be exposed to in real design situations.
