The Internship experience at DRSS is an avenue to explore potential future career fields and receive professional work experience. The short-term internship is a total of 72 hours over approximately 10 days. I interned at Morris Furniture Company with their showroom designer and advertising team. In this experience I not only worked in the office on floorplans and graphic design of advertisements, but I also visited multiple Morris and Ashley stores in the Dayton area.
Internship
The purpose of this report was to outline the potential careers of architecture and environmental design, in addition to finding possible internships that provide experience in these fields. Specific research on topics such as salary, education, and work environment of the chosen careers, architecture and environmental engineering was conducted. This research was found through data bases and corporate websites including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, TARGETjobs, and Truity. Conducting this research resulted in finding five possible related internships. The internship that was found to give the best experience was Barge, Wagoner, Sumner and Cannon Inc, (BWSC). Not only will BWSC provide the best internship through experience with a licensed architect, but it will also provide experience with collaborating professionals such as civil engineers and interior designers. The following step in this process includes contacting this BWSC to, if possible, set up an internship experience as well as conduct further research on potential college programs available in the field of architecture.
I began my internship touring the Morris corporate building, including the offices and main distribution center. Though, instead of only walking through, my mentor Joe, thoroughly explained how a piece of furniture makes it from a decision a buyer here at corporate makes to the process it encounters to get to the showroom floor and to possibly an outlet, if it doesn’t sell. I also practiced making a group of furniture in AutoCAD using a furniture overview sheet from Morris and Ashley buyers, which includes if the piece is new, on watch (not selling well), or a drop (will go to an outlet). Through this, I went to the plan and deleted pieces of furniture that were drops and ideally could fill in the new furniture. I found, though, that depending on the style of furniture, and the size of it, things could become difficult.
Day 1
Day 2
Today, I completed my first project. I used AutoCAD to add new furniture into the Wilmington Pike store. The main shift was adding the furniture brand, “King Hickory” into the furniture style section of Classic and move a furniture brand, “Bernhardt” into the previous “King HIckory” section. In doing this, I found that angling furniture is key to maximizing the space. It was difficult to add very large sectionals into a small space, but using the knowledge that I had thus far, I was able to complete the project.
Day 3
Today I visited a series of stores with Joe to check up on the layout of the showrooms in person. We visited the Beavercreek Ashley, Wilmington Pike Morris and Sleep Shop, and Mallwoods Ashley. When visiting Mallwoods, we spoke with the contractor, corporate buyers, and projects manager concerning the progress of the build and logistics of moving furniture around between phases. We then completed a walk-through of the showroom so far (being that it was in renovation) and noted any issues that could be revised. Following Mallwoods we visited the Wilmington Pike store to see if the plans I designed on Thursday would work. Being in person, it truly showed me how different it is to be in a showroom physically and not just digitally. Finally, we visited the Beavercreek Ashley store to complete a walk-through and note any issues.
Day 4
Today I visited a series of stores with Joe to check up on the layout of the showrooms in person. We visited the Beavercreek Ashley, Wilmington Pike Morris and Sleep Shop, and Mallwoods Ashley. When visiting Mallwoods, we spoke with the contractor, corporate buyers, and projects manager concerning the progress of the build and logistics of moving furniture around between phases. We then completed a walk-through of the showroom so far (being that it was in renovation) and noted any issues that could be revised. Following Mallwoods we visited the Wilmington Pike store to see if the plans I designed on Thursday would work. Being in person, it truly showed me how different it is to be in a showroom physically and not just digitally. Finally, we visited the Beavercreek Ashley store to complete a walk-through and note any issues.
Today, my mentor was required to make a trip to the new Ashley store near Columbus, Ohio to complete an audit. Consequently, I assisted the special projects team to move accessories in the Mallwoods Ashley store that is undergoing construction. Contrary to most stores under construction, Mallwoods stayed open during renovation. Due to the upcoming Memorial Day Sale, the special projects team decided to shift from Phase 2 of the renovation to Phase 3 before the weekend. So my day consisted of clearing an accessory storage space that was in the Phase 3 area. This included assisting Adam, the accessory director of that store, in moving rugs, paintings, bedding, and planters into a temporary trailer.
Day 5
I started off my first day with Christina Negri, the Sales & Promotions Director. We began the day in an Empower meeting which analyzes Morris’ efficiency in various types of advertising, including TV commercials, digital, social media, newspaper, and more. I also started my first project of entering customer entry names for a recent sweepstakes contest into an Excel document. Additionally, I listened in on a conference call with a potential blog partnership to promote the Morris brand.
Day 6
Today I had the opportunity to assist Morris’ photographer, Kristen in a shoot involving promotions for our Ohio State Athletics partnership. I learned how to adjust lighting to give a glowing effect around the outline of the subject. The goal was to mimic how a television light would look in comparison to a person. The shoot was very interesting and a fun way to get to know a few employees from other departments of the company!
Day 7
During the first part of the day, I finished entering customer names and addresses into an Excel spreadsheet. I also learned about the revision process for an advertisement to be approved in this department (and found that it was very similar to DRSS!). I then sorted balloons to send to all Morris and Ashley stores in the area for the upcoming summer sale. After sorting, we placed each set of balloons in the mailroom to send to each store. I ended the day assisting the advertising photographer, Kristen, in taking photos of sectionals for the Morris website.
Day 8
I started out the day sorting balloons for the upcoming Independence Day sale for each store. Additionally, I assisted in packing signage to send to stores that haven’t received promotional materials for the current Summer Clearance Sale yet. Later in the day, I was able to work on Adobe Photoshop and InDesign with the graphics team. Following that, I attended an advertising meeting regarding a change in Morris slogan.
Day 9
Today, I prepared future Independence Day promotional materials to be sent out. I also packaged and sent out current Summer Clearance Sale posters, balloons and yard signs. Additionally, I overviewed with the graphic design team the process in which an add undergoes from creation all the way to approval. I met with each graphic designer for Ashley and Morris brands as they showed me how to utilize templates in Adobe InDesign. Using the knowledge I gained from them, I created a basic graphic to try out my skills. I ended the day by meeting with the Head of Advertising, Rob Klaben, in which I gained understanding on his perspective on the long term effects of advertising.
Day 10
REFLECTION
In my unique internship experience of shadowing an advertising director and a floorplan designer, I had the opportunity to see how my two interests of architecture and graphic design intertwine. Working at Morris Furniture Company showed me how my two aspiring career fields of architecture and graphic design can be utilized in more ways than I originally perceived. For example, with my mentor, Joe (Morris’s showroom designer), I used architecture software, such as AutoCAD, to complete showroom layouts. Even though we were rearranging furniture, not a walls of a building, an architectural background is still useful in this specific job. Likewise, in advertising, I learned that it wasn’t all about the graphic design behind a store’s street sign or social media ad, but it was also about assuring customer reviews are accounted for. One of my favorite aspects of working on an advertising team is the similarity to project-based learning and giving feedback. A system that my associates utilized was a proofing process that essentially required relevant employees and departments to give feedback to each advertisement. This ensured that the promotion or ad was cohesive across advertising, sales, and merchandising.
Additionally, I gained my own experience through mini projects, instead of just job shadowing my mentor. A project that I completed with Joe was redesigning the layout of a Morris Home showroom on Wilmington Pike. I made new furniture groups and pieces for incoming furniture groups and removed ones that had been dropped to a Morris outlet. I reconfigured the remaining furniture to different lifestyle sections of the store, such as contemporary, traditional, farmhouse, urban, and natural living. A challenge that I encountered when redesigning the layout, was assuring that there was enough walking space (approximately 3-4 feet). At times, I needed to rotate whole groups to accomplish this. After my project was complete, my mentor and I visited the Morris Home showroom and used my floorplan to evaluate if the redesign would work in the space. My mentor explained to me that each space in a showroom tells a story. It is essential to imagine that you are the customer and to ask the questions: “What do you want emphasized? What do you want the customer to see first? What groups work well together to transition?” By attempting to apply my plan at the store, it gave me a new perspective on the contrast between an identical space in person and on paper.
Secondly, for Christina, my advertising mentor, I completed a mini project of updating mailing lists. I entered customer information from a sweepstakes giveaway into an excel spreadsheet. This was then used to later contact those customers on upcoming events and promotions through mailers. Another small project that I completed was reorganizing all print advertisements that were on file at the corporate office. This included reorganizing street signs, large indoor signage, window clings, tags, and newspaper inserts. Having the freedom to revamp their organization system, I worked with the maintenance team to get a custom rack built for our large signage that was previously separated by cardboard sheets. Even though the projects that I completed may seem minimal, it assisted others on my team to reach a common goal.
Another aspect of my internship experience was familiarizing myself with various design software’s such as AutoCAD, InDesign, and Photoshop. Getting some experience with these software programs prepared me for my future majors/minors in college. For example, for architecture, there are dozens of modeling programs. By learning the basics of the main architectural 2-D software, AutoCAD, I benefited by having a base knowledge of the software. Secondly, I hope to minor in graphic design. For this field of study, there are also multiple software programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, many of which I received some experience with. Even though I did not have the time to master these programs in my two-week internship, it gave me exposure to programs that I did not previously experience.
Overall, my internship experiences exposed me to new programs, ideas, and systems that I had not experiences before. It showed me the value in collaboration to reach a common goal. For a company that has many departments, it is essential to work together to ensure that each department’s goals coincide with the main goal. For architecture, this concept is valuable, because architects most work with other professions such as electricians, civil engineers and interior designers to have a successful design. My internship taught me more than career specific skills; it showed me basic life skills that will be useful in future endeavors.