Lisa’s Summer Practicum

Lisa Visscher
GD498
Summer 2024
District
Graphic Designer

During the Summer 2024 semester, I had the opportunity to do a practicum at District, a Vancouver-based media company specializing in music curation. This was very exciting to me as, during the last few years of my degree, I decided I ideally wanted to work as a graphic designer within the music industry after I graduated. I was heading on the right path regarding my career goals.

My first week was nerve-wracking but very exciting. I loved being in an environment filled with conversations surrounding music. Everyone was excited to have a graphic designer join the team, so I felt welcomed. My supervisor, the head of the content team, was very communicative and helpful, assigning me a few projects she would like to see while giving me the freedom to do what I felt was best for the company. The first big project she wanted to see was a cover identity system for the different music genres on their platform. I struggled with this project, feeling lost creatively for a few weeks until I eventually had to reassess and shift my focus to creating the company’s brand identity, which allowed all my other projects to flourish. Once I shifted my focus, everything began working for me. Through the brand identity, I completed a website update, a client onboarding package, a minimal system for the music genre covers, and a brand guidelines package for internal use.

The past couple of months have been quite a learning experience regarding designing in the real world instead of a classroom. It has been a rewarding experience of learning what it’s like to be the only in-house designer on the team, but it was also tricky at times not to have a senior designer to lean on. Using the skills I have learnt in my degree thus far and finding myself using them during my practicum has made me very grateful for all the mentoring I have received over the past few years. I feel confident that my professors have set me and other students up for success once we enter the workforce post-graduation.

Towards the end of the practicum, I was very happy with the work I was doing, and I felt that others reciprocated my happiness. I learnt a lot about myself as a designer, and my experience allowed me to form some new career goals and confidence. I’m very grateful to my supervisor and the rest of the organization’s staff for allowing me to experience my first-ever real-world design position and for accommodating me.

I’m looking forward to what else my education and career have to offer!