As May approached and the end of my sophomore year started to wind down, the daunting question: “What are you going to doing this summer?” ran circles around my mind. I knew I wanted my first internship experience to involve some marketing, some advertising, and some graphic design, but that didn’t mean much when it came to finding the right agency. At Northwestern University, as a communication studies and marketing major, I’m constantly surrounded by goal-oriented, soon-to-be engineers, consultants, and economists, who go through job recruitment starting in the fall. By the time summer rolled around and my plans weren’t yet solidified, I began to feel the outside pressure. With the right timing (and a lot of luck) I landed myself an internship here at RITTA. I quickly said goodbye to the end of another amazing year in Evanston, and hello to the new faces, culture, work ethic, and now family that comprises RITTA. Over the past ten weeks, I can without a doubt say that my job here involves much more than some marketing, some advertising, and some graphic design. Better yet, I don’t have to go through job recruitment in the fall to find a place where everyday is different, challenging, and exciting. My time here at RITTA has taught me that the industry I strive to be a part of is much more involved and complex than I ever imagined.
I work with my mind: sifting through product reviews to develop believable consumer profile narratives for a portable air conditioner pitch, meticulously designing Excel templates for a home appliance booklet, creating punny holiday themed copy for coffee machines, redesigning PowerPoints with my professor’s words of wisdom in mind, and most importantly, designing the 4th Annual RITTA Oktoberfest logo.
I work with my hands: downloading hundreds of images from Mediapool one click at a time, creating Excel spreadsheets with over 300 links and checking each several times, pulling statistics from zMags online, putting together a comp brochure using some newly-learned “old-school” techniques, and lastly scanning hundreds of decades-old RITTA Heritage photos from a worn down photo album.
I work with my eyes: learning to embrace white space, analyzing for hours the pros and cons of portable air conditioner packaging, and trying to pick up a few basic tricks as I watch Kurt show me his unbelievable Photoshop skills.
I work with my ears: sitting in on conference calls about corporate identity and with a former client about his new idea, participating in meetings about starting to redesign product packaging and the new car owner welcome gifts, and listening to Jackie give a well thought-out creative brief.
My friends at school jokingly make fun of me for picking “an easy major,” and that the marketing and advertising world is all about “just being creative” and coming up with new ideas. To a point, that may be true. However, this is what I love to do, and when you love your job, it shouldn’t be extremely difficult. You should be excited to wake up in the morning, go to work, and put your whole body to the test.
Thank you to the entire RITTA team who took a chance on a girl with no prior work experience and made me feel welcome and helpful this summer. I have learned countless, invaluable information about the ins and outs of production, creative, trafficking, and more over the past ten weeks. From watching projects go from start to finish (or blue sheet to gold sheet) while actually playing a part in the final product is an incredible feeling that will drive me forward as I search for my niche in this crazy industry.
