This is a record of my internship at Melaleuca; The Wellness Company. 
It documents my experiences there from August to December of 2019.
PRE-SEMESTER LOG:

Week 1
My first week at Melaleuca was a blast! I got to start out the week by working on some project for the upcoming Standing Executive Leader Conference (SELC). The first was a t-shirt featuring an animated cactus and the phrase "sun's out guns out". The second was a 5k fun run map. I set to work on both right away and made quick progress in the first few days. During the week I also got the chance to work on the Cover & Cover-Story of the Limited Edition Leadership in Action Magazine (LIA). The direction was to add some metallic ink so I developed a design that felt a bit more high-end then previous issues. Aside from these I was also assigned to some ad-reruns. After I had completes these projects (as much as I could pending approval) this week, I asked if there was anything else that needed to be done, and I was given a Logo Gear file to flush out and establish. The file was merely a collection of images. I looked through the server and found a previous version, and began emulating it. I got pretty far along with this project as well. Aside from learning a bunch of new processes, the file and project management system and getting my station set up it was a successful and relatively manageable first week.  
Week 2
The second week consisted mostly of following up on the projects and processes of the first week. As well as my day-long orientation. My biggest stumbling block was learning the project management software that consisted of "routing" projects through various channels and past innumerable reviews on a plethora of management levels. There were so many steps integrated into a system that was not user-friendly. It took a few trial and errors for me to realize that I needed to have someone supervise my routing for the first few weeks to make sure I was doing it right. 
Orientation was long, but informative. I learned a lot about company policies and procedures. I also got to see the distribution center and was educated on our packaging and shipping processes. We then went on a trip to the product store in town where were able to get a feel for the layout and spend a small product check (like the one we will receive every month). It was cool to see the bigger picture as it were, and learn how the company worked from product to customer. The rest of my week was spend refining the Logo gear file; version after version until It was right.
DAILY LOG:
September 16th 
The Leadership in Action magazine goes out this week. This will be a culmination of many projects i've worked on the past few weeks. We started the day with the regular LIA Standup. I noticed that both my Upcoming Events page and the Convention awards spread were in for changes. Jessica mentioned that she had made the copy changes before the meeting and they should be ready to route. Other than that I mostly had to get the cover and cover story in order. I returned to my desk to make the updates and submitted them to Workfront. I spent the rest of the day finalizing the cover. 
Most of the changes were relatively minor, however since the American cover had been approved, I needed to make the "Al'Dia" spanish cover. This resulted in design adjustments as well as a re-make of the masthead. The adjustments needed for the Canadian cover were much more minor. After getting all of the versions designed and approved I had to separate the metallic ink layer from the rest of the piece. This meant dividing out the photo overlay form the vector masthead. I then separated this onto it's own layer, put it into full-magenta, and labeled the layer for the printers.
September 17th 
After standup I exported out the the separate cover files to be sent to press. After that I had a meeting for the Enrollment Reward Postcard, and the Shipper Box & Cap designs. It was really cool meeting with people from different departments as we discussed the projects. I was really looking forward to exploring them, but I had to re-design the Ecosense motion design presentation for Mexico Launch Conference from English to the Spanish translation. It was a bit of a sprint to get it all redone by the end of the day, but it worked out really well. I then ended the day sketching out ideas for the enrollment promotions.
September 18th 
This morning I started work on a project that kind of came out of nowhere. I had received differing direction for various art directors and wasn't sure which way the piece would go, but they met and were able to give me some clear concepts to work off of. I quickly drafted a handful of ideas and ran them around the other designers in the office. This Enrollment Promotion mailer would appear in a customers weekly order, so it needed to stand out and look special, but still be cheap to make and implement. After my physical mock-ups were completed I made some adjustments to the SLEC T-shirt. A few of the managers up the line felt like the cactus on the shirt looked more like a pickle. We were able to do some user testing around the office to prove that it did not. After making some other adjustments I uploaded it for routing. 
September 19th 
I spent most of today making multiple iterations of the Enrollment Promotion Mailer. I was able to work with a few designers to get great feedback which ultimately produced a nice, well-rounded piece that almost felt like the customer was receiving money or a check; when in reality it was just a certificate congratulating them for their work, and notifying them of the additional items in their order as a reward for such. Once I felt I was in a good place with the mailer I attempted to wrap of some of my straggling projects. I made some adjustments to the SLEC fun run map, and sent it out for translation. It came back, I added the Spanish logo and routed it.  
September 23rd 
Today we were given our assignments for November LIA. I received a balance of ad-reruns and new layouts. Before I started on them I decided to wrap up the Shipper box & Cap design that was going to be reviewed on Wednesday. I took the copy and came up with a simple vector image that paired well with the quote to express the power of the product we were promoting. After sending it around the office I made some adjustments, refined the vector and printed it for the meeting. 
Later we had a meeting about the companies overall branding strategies and some new style guides that were intended to help us keep our focus on our target market and our mission statement. We then discussed how these could play out in our up and coming convention ads. After the meeting I met with my copywriter on the new spread I had for November LIA. We came up with a design concept and made some adjustments to the copy so that it would work well with the idea. 
September 24th 
After standup, I spent the majority of today on the Financial Freedom spread. I sketched out a few ideas with a marker, and then started using comp. files from getty to get the ideas digitized. As I did I realized quickly that some of them were clearly stronger than others. I was able to draft up 2-3 options and presented them to art directors. Later my convention sub-group had a meeting about our ideas and concepts for the campaign. We decided on the idea of "Discover Why" for many internal and general reasons. This theme was to be played out with a video, an in-home deliverable, some social media posts and the standard print ads. Running of the energy of the meeting I worked on some mailer comps and started drafting up what we had discussed.
September 25th 
Today, after updating my Workfront tasks and routing a few pieces I worked extensively on my part of our convention team's concept. This encompassed the making of the box, and all of the un-boxing assets. I user-tested a lot and got a lot of good feedback. The thing that stood out the most was that no one really took the time to "experience" the deliverable, they all busted through the folds to get the the center, and then skimmed the information they had passed. This was proceeded by a meeting about our global branding and a desire to become more focused in our messaging. Both of which let to many more iterations my package. 
September 26th 
What a successful day. On Monday I had been assigned my LIA pages for November. We also were working as a sub-team on convention concepts. Today I was able to meet with my team, make marked progress on the convention ideas, and route all of my LIA pages before I left! It was such a great feeling to know that not only had I gotten caught up on my projects but I was the first designer to route my pages for November. For the convention project I used XD to put together a mock-up of how our ideas would play out on the website. I also made some updates the mailed package/parcel according to our meeting and group direction. I'm pretty stoked for our presentation next week.
October 1st 
Today I got feedback on my LIA designs. One design in particular involved the composition of multiple images imposed over each other to create an x-ray effect. It was for an article about how a successful business can reduce stress. I thought it would be fun for this to be a vertical spread that would require the reader to rotate the magazine; unfortunately, it was deemed that the content of the article did not warrant the rotating of the book, or a center spread. So I spent some time updating the horizontal version of the layout. I also worked on the enrollment mailer. A half sheet card in a custom envelop. Since the pice was going to be sent amid other marketing collateral, they wanted it to stand out, but still feel like it belonged. I developed many iterations, and a few prototypes. 
October 2nd 
Having received a lot of feedback on both my LIA articles and the Mailer I spend most of the day reiterating, making adjustments, getting feedback, and making more adjustments. I got some really great direction on the LIA spread concerning layout and placement. It's a good example of the positive, creative environment we work in. Everyone is so supportive and creatively collaborative. It's been a wonderful growing experience. The mailer kept evolving as well until we landed on something that looked a bit like a check or some other financial document, so that it would feel special and have value to those who receive it. I really like the direction, and am excited to see it come to fruition. 
Oct - Dec.  
(Description Pending)




Back to Top