University – Gray’s School of Art
Qualification – BA Hons Communication Design (Graphics)
Job hunting experience
I graduated in 2015 and was lucky enough to start a full-time job immediately afterwards. It was, however, not as creative as I would have liked and I spent the best part of the year that I worked there hunting for something more suited to the direction I saw my career taking. Despite having lots of pretty successful interviews, I had the classic struggle of constantly coming second to someone with “more experience”. Almost exactly a year after leaving university, I was finally successful with my application for the graphic design internship with My Bookcase.
Role and Responsibilities
Although my internship was predominantly to do with graphic design, it ended up being so much more varied than I could ever have expected! The founder and director of My Bookcase, Cristina, is Spanish and was based in Spain during the time that I worked for her. We came up with a system involving a Skype call at the start of the day, which would establish what we needed to get done, and then we would work remotely via email and Dropbox. I had never worked like this before so it was a bit of a learning curve, but surprisingly effective!
As well as designing content for the My Bookcase website, platform and publications, I helped with the early stages of a new My Bookcase meeting point in the Oxfam book shop on Byres Road in Glasgow, as well as working on establishing a Publication Studio in the CCA in Glasgow, along with Good Press, A Feral Studio and artist Joanna Peace.
Where are you now?
The day before I finished my internship I accepted a permanent graphic design job with a new company based in Glasgow called Ugly Wolf: the kind of job I had been applying for, unsuccessfully, for almost a year. My new job is really exciting; at the moment we’re working on rebranding a big hotel collection, which involves a huge spectrum of different projects, from web design to cocktail menus.
I am so grateful to everyone at Adopt an Intern – from helping me feel completely at ease during the application process, to looking after me once I’d settled in at My Bookcase. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the job with Ugly Wolf came along when it did; without the internship and Adopt an Intern’s help it could have taken me much longer to reach the point I’m at now. “Amy was very helpful in sharing the workload of My Bookcase’s daily activities. It was also very positive to have her new insight into some of the projects currently taking place and allow her to take in new projects.” – Cristina Garriga (Director of My Bookcase)
Amy McIlhenny
AAI Alumni
Graphic Design Intern with My Bookcase
Connect with Amy on her website
