Hi-ho, Kelly Carnes here! Has it been three months already? Even though it feels like it was about ten seconds ago that I started here, at the same time I feel like these three months have been the equivalent of at least a year of design school.

I couldn't have asked for a better internship, or to work with better people. I feel like I'm not only leaving here with a ton of new knowledge and some great work, but with five awesome older brothers. (Seven counting the other interns. Shout out to Cory and Dan!)

The Matchstic guys achieve a great balance between hard work and professionalism and the kind of playfulness that makes it easy to get out of bed in the morning and come to work. Between the high fives, fist bumps, ridiculous nicknames and frequently having various items slingshot at my head, I really feel like "one of the guys."

I had a very vague idea of what I'd be doing here and they've gone above and beyond my expectations. I've worked on everything from naming to brand applications to logo designs. I've gained all sorts of practical knowledge including prepping websites, putting together business documents, and learning how client correspondence works. Not to mention I've overheard just about every client meeting since I've been here and shook hands with more people than I could count.

There is no hiding the interns and having them make coffee here (unless they want to). There is a sense of equality that extends to every member of the team. Everyone touches each project at some point. If there is something that needs to be done, it gets done by whoever can do it. You always feel personally connected to a project and really care about its outcome. I've literally worked under everyone here on one thing or another. The best part I think about working at a small firm is being able to see what goes on in every part of the process.

The biggest adjustments between design school and working in a firm are probably the pace and learning to be creative on demand. Where professors tend to drag out every project for weeks or months at a time, here you've got to reach a good solution in shortest time frame possible. Also, anything you do is going to have a real impact on a client's business success. You have to learn to do what's best for the client and not necessarily what's trendy in the design world. A pleasant surprise is the fact that there are steps you can take to reach creative solutions, that it's not just this vague process of sitting around waiting for the ideas to come.

I know I still have so much more growing to do, but I feel like Matchstic did all they could to expedite that process and give me a great head start. I'm so thankful that I was given this opportunity. These guys aren't just a business, they're a family. Hold on to your hat–they've got some great things in the works, and I'll be around to cheer them on.

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