WHAT DOES A DESIGN INTERN DO?
Updated: Mai 21, 2025 - The Design Intern manages the Design Research Lab, recording and transcribing data, and conducting comprehensive literature reviews. Actively assists in synthesizing data and composing detailed reports, while effectively presenting findings to both the design team and business stakeholders. Demonstrates a proactive and professional demeanor, stays abreast of the latest design trends, and maintains excellent organizational skills to meet swift deadlines.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Design Internship
1. Design Intern Duties
- Website Design and Maintenance: Design new sites and update existing sites for brands.
- Marketing Team Support: Assist the Marketing team with the development of designing webpage layouts, updating websites, removing any dead links, and maintaining the sites.
- Marketing Material Creation: Create digital and collateral marketing materials for existing and new products such as sales sheets, flyers, and brochures.
- Presentation Design: Generate PowerPoint presentations and slides for Marketing meetings.
- Digital Design Research: Research and recommend trending digital design, layouts, and interfaces to enhance user experience.
- Visual Design Production: Create visual designs, layouts, PowerPoint presentations/slides for each of the TGS family of companies.
- Product Design and Development: Undertake product design and concept development from sketches to production.
- Prototype Development: Undertake detailed project work and prototype preparation.
- Problem Research and Solution Formulation: Research and formulate the problem in every brief & propose adequate solutions.
- Cross-Team Creative Collaboration: Work closely with the graphic design team, UX team, product team, and marketing to create ideas and provide creative support.
- Active Learning Participation: Participate heavily in learning culture, find the answers, and share ideas.
- Feedback Exchange: Regularly present work, ask for feedback, and give feedback.
2. Design Intern Details
- Trend Research: Undertaking relevant trend research.
- Trend Presentation: Presenting trend research in a communicative and creative way.
- Trend Communication: Present newness and trend ideas to the design team on a fortnightly basis.
- Sample Room Management: Responsible for keeping the sample room organized and tidy.
- Sample Tracking: Responsible for updating the sample tracker with new developments and monitoring sample ETAs.
- Supplier Communication: Communicating with suppliers for updates.
- CAD Assistance: Assisting with CADs and designs for multiple ranges across brands.
- Presentation Preparation: Helping to prepare for range reviews and presentations.
- Fabric Library Maintenance: Keeping the fabric library up to date with newness.
3. Design Intern Responsibilities
- Design Department Operations Assistance: Assist with the day-to-day operations of the Design department while gaining exposure to the ins and outs of bringing a collection to life.
- Trend Research and Analysis: Research industry trends and market competitors to make suggestions for the upcoming season, including helping to select seasonal colors and prints.
- Color and Print Palette Development: Learn how to create color/print palettes based on the needs of the seasonal assortment.
- Product Storyboard Creation: Assist in the creation of product storyboards that capture the key design themes.
- Fabric Board Management: Update and manage fabric boards.
- Merchandising Collaboration: Partner with the Merchandising team to understand the product selection and development process.
- Client Account Assistance: Assist with several client accounts across the agency.
- Social Content Development: Develop social content calendars and storyboards.
- Photo Shooting and Editing: Shoot and edit photos for social content and other projects.
- Meeting and Brainstorm Participation: Participate in agency/client meetings and brainstorm.
- Social Content Copywriting: Write copy for social content pieces.
4. Design Intern Accountabilities
- Lab Management: Lab management of the Design Research lab.
- Data Recording: Recording/transcribing data.
- Literature Review: Conducting literature reviews.
- Information Presentation: Presenting information to others (to the design team/business stakeholders).
- Data Synthesis Assistance: Assisting with data synthesis and report writing.
- Brainstorming Participation: Participating in brainstorming sessions.
- Proactivity: Proactively seek challenges and responsibilities.
- Positivity Modeling: Model a positive outlook even in challenging situations.
- Professionalism Maintenance: Maintain high levels of professionalism while interacting with tenants/guests, team members, and vendors and partners.
- Trend Awareness: Be up to date with the latest trends and designs.
- File Organization: Keeps files organized and meets quick deadlines.
5. Design Intern Functions
- Trend Analysis: Analyzing new trends/fabrics/price points for current customers & market competition.
- Market Research Assistance: Assist in shopping the retail and trend markets seeking new merchandise ideas, as needed, and support fit sessions.
- Swatch Creation: Create swatch color cards & add new season color standards to the PLM Library.
- Materials Distribution Assistance: Assist in creating and distributing color cards, trim cards, and pattern development sheets.
- Sales Preparation Support: Help prep lines for Sales meetings (pull samples/steam/print Cads, etc.).
- Presentation Preparation: Prepare line and presentation materials/set-up for design milestone meetings.
- Library Creation: Create a tangible fabric & trim library to mirror PLM library.
- Technical Package Assistance: Assist in creating and distributing tech packages.
- Sketch Updating: Update sketches Assist in developing and updating sketches for design development.
- Sketch Organization: Organize sketches by season for designers.
- Slide Updating: Update slides with Model photos.
6. Product Designer Intern Job Description
- User Research: Partner with PM and engineering to engage in user research, influence product direction, and define design projects.
- Process Improvement: Actively contribute to evolving process, tools and systems to ensure creating great, consistent work.
- Problem Solving: Solve customer problems by synthesizing behavioral information and imagining things as should be.
- Idea Development: Conceptualize a broad spectrum of ideas and then narrow based on experimentation and customer research.
- Prototyping: Rapidly design and prototype multiple ideas for product features.
- Design Leadership: Work with DesignOps leadership to discover opportunities for reusable UI and UX patterns.
- Collaboration: Collaborate with product designers to develop reusable components and patterns for common product use cases.
- Technical Design: Work with DesignOps engineers to build and deploy the new components and patterns you design.
- Communication: Own the communication for the new components and patterns create, ensuring documented clearly and comprehensively in style guide and design tools.