breanneallendesign

A little over a year ago I was boarding a plane to go to Las Vegas to attend Exhibitor 2014. I would meet the Optima Graphics team for the first time and also see the booth that I designed to be built showcasing Optima Graphics capabilities. It was the start of a really important stepping stone in my career. Seeing something that monumental in my pre-professional career is a moment words can not describe and a memory I will not forget. I am so proud when I say I come from Bemidji State University, I believe in our unique curriculum and the wonderful professors and staff that teach and mentor the students. With out them, a lot of our careers wouldn’t be a successful. Thinking back to where I was four years ago and today, I wouldn’t believe it myself. I have had opportunities only (I did) and others could of dreamt of. I didn’t think I had it in me to have accomplished the goals I set and achieving some of my wildest dreams. Today, I start my job as a Graphics Coordinator for a company in the Twin Cities, and I am enthralled. Having this opportunity to begin my career and be in the area I chose to stay in, really makes me feel proud. I moved after graduation in May to Minneapolis. I was away from home working as a intern for Optima Graphics in St. Louis, MO and Duo Displays in Lansargues, France. Once I came home I began another wonderful and educational internship with Star in Minneapolis, MN. It wasn’t easy to find work after it was all over. It still feels like a dream that I was THAT girl, chasing her dreams. It took me four months of working two part-time jobs at a local boutique, and Coffee Wine Bar to get me where I am today. I am proud of myself for all of the hard work and perseverance I achieved in those four months. It was daunting at time to apply your self so much to finding a job in something you are passionate for to only get rejected. Rejection isn’t something easy to take. I was feeling very discouraged due to the fact I couldn’t get a job after all of that amazing experience I attained after graduation. I felt defeated and also uncertain at times if Minneapolis was the place for me to start my career. But, here I am, I made it. All of my hard work towards finding my first job, was all worth it.  Life is what you make of it, Never give up!

I had the pleasure of working as a 2D and 3D design intern for the past thirteen weeks at Star Exhibits and Environments. Star is a large well-known and respected design company based in the Minneapolis, Minnesota whose work and client base speaks for itself (if you haven’t heard of them you need to check them out.) In the past thirteen weeks I have had wonderful mentors within the creative department who have “shown me the ropes” so to speak on what it takes on a day-to-day basis to be a successful, and well-respected graphic and exhibit designer in the industry. Learning how to manage my work loads on both 2D and 3D designing required a lot of patience and diligence on both my and my mentors ends. Practicing professional communication skills between our department and others was a great skill to learn heading into my professional career. Being an intern in a team environment taught me the skills of dependability, reliability, work ethic, patience and how to be team player and an asset to a company. Everyone here brings something unique to the job and lets them be a leader and utilizing their skills and training to shine through on certain projects. Being a self-driven individual I recognized a lot of progression in my technical, interpersonal and problem solving skills. It is hard to have this great experience come to an end but, the connections and relationships I have built-in the past thirteen weeks has made an everlasting impression on me. As I look back heading into Star on my first day of my internship in August I had no clue what experiences were coming my way. The amount of growth I have had as a designer, and as a person here has given my a propelling momentum to push me in the right direction to find my next great adventure as a professional designer. To all of the people at Star who I had the pleasure of working with daily or even on a brief basis, I want to thank you for giving me an experience as great as mine was and for teaching me the tools for success.

Now I’m off to my next big adventure.

Wow, it has already been a week since I have been home from my five weeks of internships! Words can’t describe the feelings that I have towards my internships with Optima Graphics and Duo Displays. I thank them for giving me the opportunity of a life time that has forever changed me. I will never be the same again after the past five weeks of being by myself in completely different environments to be working and also exploring the surrounding areas. The challenges that I faced and the obstacles that I overcame has given me a fresh outlook on my abilities as a designer and as a person. I don’t know who could be given the same opportunities and not be completely changed and inspired to keep designing after everything I just experienced. I will always carry those lessons and experiences with me for the rest of my life!

Thank you for everyone who has been following me on my design internship journey and I hope you were entertained and also inspired to follow your dreams and never stop pushing yourself to experience new things. Always keep pushing your boundaries to become the best you that you can possibly be.

All my best,

Bre

Working as a design intern at the Duo office has been both challenging and rewarding at the same time. But I am really progressing each day with communication (speaking French and teaching English) Learning first hand experience on the European exhibiting experiences that are used daily within and outside the workplace and also and how they host clients within the company and handle client meetings is all very different then the states. Everything is very hospitable and they do everything they can to make the client feel welcome and comfortable, I really enjoy this disposition in treating everyone so kindly and respectfully.
I am currently wrapping up presentations and finishing designs for all of my American H-line stands to be used as examples for the American exhibiting market everything includes price listings, parts and cut lists also with renderings of the set up and color coding of profiles for the consumer to easily set-up and take down the booth very easily and in a timely manner.

H-line is a really impressive turn key modular line which is very consumer friendly and also was designed to meet the needs and wants of and effective booth at an affordable price. Based in the U.S this can be very expensive when all of the numbers add up at the even of a show starting from shipping, drayage, booth space, set-up, take down (not counting numerous of other things). This new line will really cut the costs of labor time, and also targets first time (or frequent) exhibitors who want to have a full visual modular display system for less! Also H-line is fully recyclable! !

I am very proud of my accomplishments and also very excited to attend the launching of H-line with the Duo team in Paris a week from today!

From across the pond,

Bre

Today is the European launch date for Duo Display new product H-line. It has been extremely busy around here the past few days in getting ready for todays big event. Dealers from all over France are being invited to Duo to celebrate and discuss the newest product. I will provide more details coming soon on what the difference of Panoramic and H-Line, it is my job to provide different booth designs for ten industries for the launch when it comes to America and help H-Line be a success in the United States.
I will share with you what I have completed, hope you enjoy.

Outside of working in the Duo office I have been able to take a few trips to different towns & also see and swim in the Mediterranean Sea! I hope you enjoy these photos!

Hello family, friends and fellow blog followers.

I have been in France for only five days now and I can say that I am in love with the south of France! I am enjoying staying in Montpellier very much with another employee at Duo where I am interning and she is a wonderful person! Duo is a really impressive company that is much smaller than Optima in St. Louis, MO where I just was interning. Duo is located in Lansargues, France (a very small village) about 30 kilometers away from Montpellier. I am interning with Duo and my jobs here are….

1. Working with Duo in launching their recently launched H-line in Panoramic in the USA which was just launched in Europe.
2. Working with Duo on brochure and set-up instructions and make sure they answer expectations of US exhibitors and exhibit houses.
3. Working with the functionalities required by the US exhibitors for their tradeshow.
4. Design ten panoramic H-line for the US market for ten different industries

There is much more along with my internship like international design, sales and marketing but I wanted to list more specifics.

 

Bonjour everyone!

After my very hectic international traveling experience due to my flight being diverted on my way to Montreal and being held at the Buffalo airport in New York, the rest of my flights were cut very close for time. Yes, I was that frantic American girl who was running as fast as possible to get through customs and get to my gate not even having 40 minuets from landing to next flight taking off. But I made it to France after a very long 22 hours of traveling!

I am staying on Montpellier with a wonderful lady named Melony, who works at Duo she is young and has been a lot of fun to be staying with and a huge help because she understands and speaks very good English. If you haven’t heard of Montpellier before, you should look it up because it is a very cool place right next to the Mediterranean Sea.

So far my first day at Duo consisted of walking through the facilities and being introduced to everyone. I have been working with their software and learning about the European ways for design and the different standards that they have then American.

I wanted to write a brief review of my first 72 hours in France so far but I’m back to work!

Salut, friends & family!

I can’t believe that my two weeks at Optima Graphics is completed already! Where did all of that time go? Well, all I can say is that I have learned so much more about myself as a person, a growing designer and a young professional in the design industry. My time spent at Optima in St. Louis was amazing, I met so many inspirational people and also have made such great connections with a few of them that I will carry their words of wisdom and guidance with me into my professional life. I was exposed to various positions in the industry that I could possibly see myself falling into and being quite successful at it. I will share a few of my works with you on what I created while I was there. A few of these projects were quick renders for clients to see a 3D version of their ideas, none of these have completed graphics on them because I was not there to see my completed projects go through  finalized production stages. I will be getting photos of them before they get shipped out! I was really happy to also see what it all took to make my winning booth design to become a reality, and what changes were made in details and how they were put into affect for budgeting reasons. And also I was able to create new “hybrid” booths that incorporate three different extrusion families.