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3 takeaways from my summer Internship with roux
Morgan Pearce • August 13, 2019
Submitted by our summer graphic design intern, Morgan Pearce. Morgan is a junior at Mississippi State University, studying graphic design. We feel so blessed to have had her as part of our croux this summer!
With this being my first internship, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I walked through roux’s doors for the first time, all my anxiety went away.
The people at roux are incredibly friendly, talented and fun to be around, and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to work with them over the summer (if you are thinking about who you should intern for, definitely choose roux, and thank me later.)
Here are just a few of the many reasons I loved my summer internship at roux:
#1: The Environment
The environment at roux is laid back in the best way. Most of the time we do our work at the office while listening to great music, ordering Taziki’s for lunch (we eat at other places occasionally too, I promise), and having great conversations with the team.
The overall feel of the company is welcoming, warm, and homey which I believe is key to a great intern experience.
#2: The Experience
Roux definitely spoils you with all the things you get to and events you get to attend. This is no coffee-fetching internship.
One of the things I found interesting was sitting in on client meetings and getting to see how roux interacts with their clients and how their process works with coming up with helpful solutions and ideas.
It was always cool to see other fields helping with roux, present their work and collaborate with the clients. The team at roux also takes you to photo or video shoots so you can observe how the creatives run through their process and just do their thing. They even took me on a field trip to a printing facility so I could see all the work that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to printing different client materials.
The team at roux has such a big heart for every person they meet whether a client, a coworker, or just a random person walking down the street. They give back to the community whenever they can, and one day they invited me to volunteer at the Nashville Food Project gardens with them.
It was a great experience working on the gardens that will produce food to be distributed throughout the community. It was a lot of manual labor and super hot outside, but it was so rewarding.
#3: The Rewards
As a graphic design intern, I worked with roux’s creative director, Lauren Weiss. I was so surprised by how much she and the rest of the roux team trusted me with their clients and projects.
It made me feel confident, like they knew what I was capable of and wanted to push me to be the best I could be. As a graphic designer, there is a lot you need to know about the software, and I am still in the learning process.
I was so relieved when Lauren made me feel like it wasn’t a big deal that I didn’t know how to do everything with the programs. She happily showed me how to do different things that I needed help with or just things I wanted to know, and I learned so much.
On top of that, you also get paid! This is awesome because most internships don’t pay you for all your time and hard work. It just goes to show how much roux really cares about their interns and trusts in what they can accomplish.
I couldn’t have imagined a better internship. I learned so much, from design and marketing to how a great company is built, and it all starts with the amazing people who run it.
To Stefan, Lauren, Karen, and Lianna, thank you so much for all you do and for this opportunity that I will cherish forever.
Morgan
We are excited to announce the recipient of our most recent Food for Thought grant — the Hot Springs Food Pantry, located in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Food for Thought is a fund we created through The Community Foundation to offer grants to organizations that help feed children in our community. This isn’t just about money though. We’re also on the lookout for ways to teach kids about good food, to help them learn to prepare it, and to encourage them to love it as much as we do. We are always looking for organizations in our local communities whose mission aligns with ours and have specific needs we can provide grants for. Because our croux reaches far and wide, “local” doesn’t just mean Tennessee. In this case, the community is local to one of our core team members, Lauren. After moving back to her hometown of Hot Springs, South Dakota to be closer to family, she got involved with the local food pantry and saw a specific need there. The food pantry needed a refrigerator so they could provide more fresh produce and protein to families in the area. They were also seeing an above average need in the community due to rising costs which has depleted some of their funds. The grant received from Food for Thought will go towards these efforts and help provide fresh food for families in the area.
We’re back with another creative croux feature. Normally, these pieces are put together by one of our freelance writers, Annie Van Essen, but this time, we’re spotlighting her!
We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in July 2023, making this our tenth Mardi Gras as a krewe. We are so thankful for the many projects, partnerships, clients and friends who have been a part of our journey so far. The essence of Mardi Gras can be summed up in one lighthearted phrase, “ Laissez les bons temps rouler!” — French, for “Let the good times roll!” We’ve had a lot of good times here at roux over the last decade, and we’re excited for them to keep on rollin’. Bon Mardi Gras and merci beaucoup, friends!
Every January we like to gather as a croux and plan for the year ahead. It serves as a holiday celebration and a strategy session. We look forward to it every year. Over the last few years, we’ve also begun incorporating a “word of the year” practice, where we each choose a word that we will focus on throughout the year.
This year, we decided to take our merry-making to the streets of Nashville to see how well the average passerby could interpret some of our favorite Creole vocab. The results were… entertaining. See for yourself!
Every year, our croux puts together a roundup of our favorite Super Bowl commercials.
This time around, we thought we’d switch it up and ask for submissions of our team’s favorite commercials EVER. Whether from 2023 or 2003, we want to celebrate the advertising magic of Super Bowl Sunday.
Here at roux, we have a wonderful team of creatives supporting us, including photographers, videographers, writers, and designers.
Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Kyle Sorvick, one of the talented graphic designers we work with as part of our extended croux.
We all look forward to receiving Christmas greetings from friends and loved ones, whether it’s a social media post or a physical card to display in our house or hang on the fridge. But when it comes to company Christmas cards, corporate greetings can sometimes fall a bit flat. We love when a company spices things up and sends a message that’s genuine and fun. Videos can also be a more effective and affordable option for a company, when you consider the reach made possible with email and social media, and the savings on printing and postage. Averitt and JetRight are two local companies that knock it out of the park every year when it comes to their video Christmas cards. Whether they choose to be lighthearted and silly or share a heartwarming message, watching their videos shows you the real people and spirit behind the companies. Check them out below!