The general consensus was that this would be the most stressful experience I’d ever had. I was told I would be crushed by deadlines and work all hours for little pay, or even no pay at all.

If you really want a job at the end of it, an internship will never be a relaxing experience – but fortunately mine bore no resemblance to the horror stories.

Faye and David were very concerned that I do things ‘properly’ and helped me get to grips with day-to-day jobs. When it came to creative work, they didn’t actually expect me to churn it out at lightning speed. Instead, I was asked (very consistently) to ‘make it more clever’. I soon learned that this can be just as daunting as ‘do it faster’. But between a lot of head scratching, I found it’s possible to think of something new, hours after you’ve privately decided you are definitely out of ideas.

This feedback didn’t just apply to visual design. Having spent much of my time at college glued to Photoshop and InDesign, I was also surprised at the amount of time spent on words and ideas. Before setting foot in Telling Stories I’d admired their use of copy ideas, so perhaps I should have foreseen the hours and hours I’d spend on thesaurus.com trying to find that perfect turn of phrase. The mass of neon post-it notes that creep across the wall during a naming project can get pretty dazzling.

Another big difference from college was sharing projects – it seems an obvious way to work in a studio, but I wasn’t used to handing over work to be finished by someone else, or being given someone else’s idea to have a crack at. But two – or more – heads are better than one, and it’s always interesting to see how different people approach the same problem.

I’ve had a great first year at Telling Stories. Being part of a design studio that’s so ideas focused has made me appreciate different types of work, and realise what an impact well thought out design can have.

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Written by Alice Worthington