I have been really happy to be assigned a spread in the next issue of "The Downtowner," the younger version of the publication I work for, "The Georgetowner."
I am gently, slowly, earning their trust. I actually had a substantial to-do list this week, though I missed Tuesday for filming on the Smithsonian project and Wednesday we had a barbecue and staff meeting. Even the barbecue furthered my good fortune of purposeful work: one of our photographers asked me to do a graphic for his column after I designed a graphic for the spread I was assigned.

One page of the spread was a collage of photos the same photographer has shot in the last two weeks (the production cycle for the two publications). He saw me design the graphic for it one day and we have had several professional conversations about where we want the page to go visually. The opposite page on the spread is a calendar of "Up & Coming" events in the District. When I explained to him what we would be doing with that, he offered to supply photos from last year’s events to match the announcements of their reoccurences this year. We now have a photo calendar. (or will, when I get it put together)

I have also been working on getting a digimag version of the publication on our website. Instead of reading the articles as just text with a photo gallery at the bottom, readers can flip the pages, look at photos and see the design as it was intended- together as one publication. I used a program through www.issuu.com. It was easy enough after I combined the pdfs of the past issues (I did every issue since April.)

While I did/am doing this, Caitlin is doing the same spread for The Georgetowner and researched a way to sell our photos on our website. So we will not only have a digimag, but be able to sell our photos and make money too. Every day this internship gets more like life in the real journalism world and I am proud that we get to help to make it even better.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but as we figure out what those are, this machine becomes more "well-oiled."

I just pray that all goes smoothly on Monday. We need a good, solid deadline week to apease The Great Printer. Of course, as our luck goes, we only have four more weeks after this deadline passes, meaning two more production cycles (not counting the one we are halfway through). Then we try to write down as much advice as we can for the fall’s interns, but the staff knows it will all just start over again. Like chalk murals, internships build something cohesive and beautiful, then the rain signifying the end of the season of life washes it all away for another group of artists to try their hands.