After spending my past three years of college daydreaming about what it would be like to work in an ad agency, I was given the amazing opportunity in the summer of 2020 to intern for Williams Whittle. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I was worried that the internship would not be everything I expected as we were unable to meet together in the office and I was unable to physically recreate any sort of Mad Men scenes. The incredible team at Williams Whittle made it so easy to communicate and actually feel like I joined a community and a familial work environment. The internship differed greatly from my previous projects in school in which our budget it was unlimited and our teams only met at 3 a.m., but I was so grateful to see how real-world agencies work, sit in on meetings, learn more about brand identity, researching new business, and my personal favorite: creating gifs for our social media posts. Because I learned so much about brand identity, the most “on brand” thing for me to do for this blog post is to give you an infographic list of the top five things I learned.

Mandy Aste is a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth University pursuing a dual degree in Strategic and Creative Advertising and a minor in Religious Studies. Visit her portfolio at www.mandyaste.com.