Final Internship Report

J US T I N H AU B RI C H

Final Internship Repor t

Company Over view

TATE PUBLISHING

Tate Publishing & Enterprises is a family-owned, mainline publishing organization located in Mustang, Oklahoma that serves and markets unknown authors. Tate operates on what is known as a vanity press model in which the majority of authors pay for the publication of their books. The publishing charges for books are refunded if the sales reach sufficient volumes. The company also has a recording studio known as the Tate Music Group.

HISTORY Tate Publishing was formed when the founders Richard and Rita Tate published their first book with a more traditional publishing company. After they found out that all the rights to their book and the majority of the royalties now belonged to the publishing company, Richard and Rita Tate set out to redefine what they believed a mainline royalty publisher should be.

THE PHILIPPINES In May 2012, the company president of Tate Publishing fired 25 out of more than 200 employees as disciplinary action in response to an anonymous employee who leaked confidential information related to rumors that the company is outsourcing operations to the Philippines.

Tate Publishing now has a branch located in the Philippines.

SPECIALTIES Tate Publishing specializes in Children’s Books, Religious Books, Self-Help Books, and Record Albums.

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com

The Illustration Intern

MY JOB

My duty as the illustration intern at Tate Publishing was to be a workhorse for all of the illustration jobs that no one else wants to do. Sometimes I would be assigned to do other tasks such as scanning in documents and organizing them on the author server, but the majority of work that I did was on correcting illustrations that the various authors requested changes to, known as PCF corrections. Sometimes I was assigned to create a illustration from scratch, but that was disappointingly rare. All of the illustrations that I worked on were for children’s books.

THE PROCESS Every PCF job that I was assigned began with an e-mail from the illustration director.

Every e-mail included a link to the project I was assigned on their project tracking system, a .PDF attachment of the author’s book, as well as a list of author requested corrections to the illustrations within their book.

After I get the e-mail, I connect to the author server so that I can locate all the necessary files that I need to make the corrections. I copy the .PSD files to my computer and then I begin to make the corrections that the author has requested. Some of the corrections are so extensive that they require me to completely rework up to half of the entire illustration.

After the corrections are complete, I review them with the illustration director and then I upload them to the author server. Then I log my progress into PT, the project tracking system which will help to notify the author about the progress to their book.

CHALLENGES One of the main challenges to working on PCF corrections was the variety of different illustration styles that I had to match seamlessly, since each project I was assigned had a different style than the previous. However, I was able to conquer this challenge and I did a good job at my internship overall.

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com

The Experience

THE PORTFOLIO EXPERIENCE After e-mailing Tate about filling their intern position, I got an e-mail back asking me to come in for an interview and to bring a portfolio of my illustration work. Assembling a presentable illustration portfolio for an interview is a vital skill to getting a job as a graphic designer, which is why this experience was beneficial to me.

THE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Once my portfolio was ready to go, I e-mailed Tate and scheduled an interview. It was my first time at a job interview of this sort so I did not know exactly what to expect.

When I got there, they looked at my portfolio, asked me a few questions about what type of illustration work I am capable of and which programs I know how to use, and then they told me what I would be doing as an illustration intern. The meeting was very brief and much easier than I thought it would be. This experience will give me better leverage and confidence when I go in for my next job interview.

THE WORKPLACE EXPERIENCE Interning at Tate Publishing gave me a good taste of what it is like to be in the workplace in the graphic design industry. I had my own desk, and during lunch I would play cards with everyone else. I worked from nine to five every Thursday and Friday, not much else to say about that.

THE ILLUSTRATION EXPERIENCE During my internship at Tate I gained a lot of experience working on children’s book illustrations. Each project I worked on had a different style of illustration, which required me to become a master of the brush tool settings. Matching textures, lines qualities, and other aspects of the illustration style was a challenge that slowed me down at first, but as time went on the hours of experience I earned helped me to overcome any challenges.

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com

Wo r k S a m p l e s

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com

Wo r k S a m p l e s

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com

Super visor Approval

I approve this report and acknowledge that Justin Haubrich has completed 160 hours of intern work for Tate Publishing & Enterprises to complete the internship credit.

CHRISTINA HICKS Associate Director of Creative Design, Tate Publishing & Enterprises

jhaubrich2@uco.edu (405) 942.1870 w w w.jhaubrich.com