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zac-eli-benloulou

A Letter from the Intern

At a function put on by the University of Victoria’s Warren Undergraduate Review five months ago, a mysterious man in black approached my friend Oliver and I. This was Oliver’s coworker Liam Sarsfield, the fervent leader of Pixel Union. We had a brief argument about Tree of Life, commented on each other’s clothing, and then parted ways. On the way home I told Oliver that I’d liked the man in black. A few weeks later we happened onto each other’s Tumblogs, and after much back-and-forth through various social media, I interviewed for a design internship at Pixel Union. I got it.

I’ve spent the last two years studying interaction design at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. I’m currently taking a year off (although I use “year” loosely). At this point, I’ve been here for a month, which I can’t really believe. I’m extremely grateful to everyone here for this opportunity, and for making me feel at home. Time flies when you’re working with 8 of the coolest guys you could ever wish to spend time with. Seriously: chances are you don’t have friends half as cool as these guys, and I get to spend all day with them. This is lucky, because if they weren’t paid they probably would not spend any time with me [Ed. Note: HOGWASH! We would accept barter too.]

Liam sits on my left, and to my right is our incredibly talented lead designer Carlo Franco. They are my work dads. Up until this point I’ve been doing a bit of everything. Liam will usually ask me if I am proficient in something, and, if i don’t look terrified by his suggestion, he has me give it a go. For example, before making the videos advertising our two latest themes (Juneau and Fluid), I’d opened After Affects approximately once. I have to say that my favourite part of this job is how every day I’m challenged by something. It’s kind of nice coming to work and having no idea what I am going to be doing that day. I used to work retail and (apart from the guilt of selling people thousands of dollars worth of sweaters on credit) I didn’t take much away from it.

As cliche as it is, I need to say it: “Wow, I’m learning so much more at work now than I ever did at school!” This didn’t come as a complete surprise but I had no idea how much more fun learning here would be.

I’ll occasionally post what I’m doing, and how things are going. Hopefully, I can inspire all of you to drop out of university and work with a charming group of lost boys. Intern out. [*mic drop*]