Keilana Hoffstetter Interns with the Dedicated Founders of the Society Library

From FSU Art BFA ’21 Keilana Hoffstetter:

“Interning with the dedicated founders of the Society Library, a non-profit organization that is creating an archival effort which presents the ideas, ideologies and world-views of humanity in a centralized library for future generations, has allowed me to cultivate my artistic practice and gain valuable knowledge on how to adapt, perform, and succeed in a professional setting. During my internship as a graphic design intern, I have had the opportunity to enhance my portfolio with projects demonstrating an understanding of brand building, teamwork, and creative messaging. I have gained a plethora of skills including collaborating as a team with other artists to complete tasks appointed to us, work on time management while creating intricate and thought provoking designs, learn how to create pieces for multiple media platforms, and how to grow my network.

During my internship, I was able to work closely with a communications team and create graphic design pieces that coincide with scientific articles created by teams of data science, grant writing, and logic and argumentation interns — working with a diverse intern group has taught me how to adapt my graphic design work to fit a professional, scientific niche. The task of translating scientific research into a graphic design that promotes the material in the scientific text that accompanies the piece proved to be challenging at first. However, as I focused more attention to the information presented in the text and created a map guiding me to the main points of the articles I was able to successfully create graphic design pieces that coincided with the message presented in the articles and enhanced the text overall. This close communication with other interns that were educated in academic research and not the arts was a valuable experience that will be utilized in my professional carrier as an artist when presenting my skills to future employers.

Additionally, my assignments changed weekly throughout my internship. This allowed me to explore different media platforms, different styles, and how to adapt my art style to fit the prompt assigned to me successfully. At first, switching between different prompts and platforms seemed daunting but became more natural as the internship progressed. Being able to shift my focus between different prompts and subjects with ease is a valuable skill that will benefit my professional career.

Overall, my experience interning at the Society Library has been beneficial to my personal and professional practice as an artist. I highly recommend this internship to any artist that is interested in broadening their skill set, working across different media platforms, working alongside a diverse set of interns, and those interested in expanding their network. This internship challenges artists to analyze scientific research and data and then translate it into a compelling design that will expand the audience’s perspective and opinion in events that are unfolding in the modern world.”