I worked as an intern at Somewhere Else for almost four months, from June to October 2023. My lecturer recommended Somewhere Else, which at first confused me due to their unusual name. However, as I looked into them on their website, I became more fascinated by the uniqueness and playfulness in their website and was moved by their mission to support brands in realising their full potential and genuinely designing for people. These aspects of Somewhere Else stood out to me, and I felt I could learn a lot from an internship there.

In my days leading up to the internship, I felt like I could not sleep. Maybe it was out of excitement or I was utterly nervous since it had been something I was looking forward to but I was quite scared of messing it up in some way. I was pleasantly surprised when my mentor asked me for 10 things I wanted to learn from my internship but this eased my nerves, seeming they cared about their interns’ experience deeply. On my first day, I was asked what types of projects I would like to try working on and they would find a project to assign me to that I would enjoy.

I told my mentor that one of the things I wanted to work on was social media posts since it was something I struggled with, working in a small mobile size and needing to convey lots of information. And it so happened that Somewhere Else had their own Instagram page filled with captivating content and posts with attention-grabbing graphics! Most of my projects in Somewhere Else ended up being Instagram posts which I thoroughly enjoyed creating with no stipulations in terms of design, allowing me to freely convey the idea of all the posts in my own way which was always fun. It was a huge surprise to me when I received positive comments from my coworkers and friends when seeing the posts I designed since I struggled so much in the beginning.

Looking at the posts now, it is quite easy to spot which posts were by me if you see blues and oranges together.

One of the most enjoyable client projects I worked on happened to be UI/UX design for both mobile and desktop screens for Sim Seng Hin and ODA. I worked closely with one of the designers, Sabelle. I had to create some pages of the desktop website from scratch with very few references as well as converting all the completed desktop pages to their mobile views. Going back and forth with Sabelle was fascinating, seeing her workflow differ from my other coworkers which I could only observe from what I see in the office. This project overall helped me overcome my hesitation in exploring more into UI/UX in my own projects.

The most difficult project I worked on was redesigning an existing book for a property company based on their newly established brand guidelines created by Somewhere Else. This required me to use InDesign, a software I had not used since earlier in the year, and not even for a project for print. Initially, I independently created the first 12 pages, establishing guides and overall design to match the new guidelines. This was already a formidable challenge, with intricate text layouts for statistics and the delicate balance of page composition. This project was undoubtedly the most demanding one I had to undertake, requiring me to reacquaint myself with InDesign while tackling a complex print design spanning multiple pages.

Somewhere Else also conducted Branding 101 exercises with me in my first month to better introduce me to the world of Branding. This eventually led to me starting on my Project X, a self-initiated project for their interns. I wanted to do something with music given my history as an ex-music student and now rediscovering my love for jazz. I had come up with the idea of a brand to introduce jazz as a moving music festival experience to Singaporeans called ‘Jazz on the Run’. This required a lot of refining on the brand strategy side so it was helpful to have the in-house brand strategists assist me in the process and give me helpful insights.

The constructive feedback from the team helped tremendously when they pitched all sorts of touchpoints I could implement which were interesting. I loved the idea that my mentor gave to have ever-changing typography throughout the posters and zines I created. This prompted me to try out some motion graphics of the custom typography I created morphing into each other, though tedious, really paid off in the result. I had a lot of fun with the copy in the project toot, being especially fun and cheeky, like it really was ‘on the run’.

In my last few weeks, I also had the opportunity to put some of my own personal work for sale at their pop-up design event, Forbidden Fruit, which was such a rewarding end to my internship experience. I got to meet many local creatives, those who were vendoring alongside me or those who I spoke with briefly as they checked out, though short conversations were meaningful to me.

Over the 4 months working there, I received a lot of meaningful advice I will always keep at the back of my head. My mentor organised sit-downs and sharings with the team to discuss their journeys as designers to get to where they are now, answering some of my questions and worries about my own educational and career journey. I loved hearing the stories of the small but vibrant Somewhere Else team over our regular morning meetings, lunch or walking out of the office as we leave. I am beyond grateful for the time I spent at Somewhere Else for my internship and I came out of it learning more than I ever intended.