So, every other Friday I do these surprise assignments with my interns—I want to teach them to think and design on the fly, and learn new skills as they go. The assignments are based on skills I think they need to work on (be it technical or stylistic), and structure it in a fun way. Even though it’s totally based around them, it’s also fun for me to watch and see what they come up with in an environment with no real pressures, a safe space.
They learned how to make animated GIFs two weeks ago, and today we did chalkboard lettering:
I started by giving them a pre-existing design to copy, to familiarize themselves with the materials. Then, I started giving them situational assignments, like “design a menu” or “design a jam lid.”
Made sure to have them photograph each finish piece for their portfolios.
Alisan had some issues with her board—the chalkboard paint started coming off! We figured it must have been using too much water to clean the board each time. It’s all a learning experience here! 
