Massachusetts Internships in Graphic Design: Ink, Paper, and the Beginning of Everything

My First Design Internships & The 1/8” Detail That Started Everything

It all started with something small. A 1/8” painted border on a piece of cotton paper in a box in my grandfather’s basement. I didn’t know it at the time, but that thin line would eventually lead me into a career in design.

I remember looking at it and thinking—how is this made?

Ever since I could remember, I was surrounded by things I didn’t yet have language for. Boxes of stationery, samples, engravings, and paper that felt different the moment you touched it. Every visit, my grandfather would pull out a different box and show me what he had once made—not just finished pieces, but process, craft, and intention. My grandfather had retired and sold his company, Excelsior Printing & Engraving Company, but remnants of it still lived in the basement of my grandparents’ house.

He also began giving me pieces that weren’t perfect—letters and samples with tiny imperfections, misprints, or slight misalignments that most people would never notice. Instead of throwing them away, he would have me look and see if I could spot the imperfection.

Learning Craft Before I Had Language for It

Every visit became a quiet lesson in paper, print, and patience. I was surrounded by engraving, stationery, and craftsmanship long before I knew design was something you could study. My grandfather would talk about his work with Crane’s & Co., copper plate engraving, and the care behind paper selection. I didn’t fully understand the terminology, but I understood the intention behind it. This wasn’t just paper—it was meaning made physical. I was curious enough to ask him questions about every box, every texture, every detail, even when I didn’t fully understand what I was looking at yet.

It didn’t take long for my grandfather to give me a small box of stationery of my own and tell me I could write letters. At that age, I wasn’t sure who I would write to, but I started anyway—my grandparents, other family members, simple notes with no expectation. Then something unexpected happened: I received a letter back from my grandmother. That was the moment I realized paper could carry conversation—that writing didn’t end when you finished the page. That’s how I discovered pen pals. She and I wrote letters back and forth for decades. Her penmanship was some of the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen, something she also taught me to appreciate growing up. I’m sure both of my grandparents read my letters, and it filled them with joy in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.

When Design Became a Path, Not Just an Interest

Years later, when I chose to study Graphic Design at Ringling College of Art & Design, it didn’t feel like a decision made from nowhere. It felt like something I had already been living in pieces my whole life. So when internship season came during college, I knew what I wanted to learn—not just how to design something, but how it was made: the printing, the engraving, the process behind it becoming real.

That curiosity brought me back to Massachusetts. During the summer after my sophomore year, I lived with my aunt in the Berkshires and split my time between two places: Berkshire Direct, a small advertising and marketing studio, and Excelsior Printing, the same world I had grown up around—visiting my grandparents’ house, looking through the Crane’s & Co. boxes, and sitting in that same basement, in the same place where it all began.

Berkshire Direct & Excelsior Printing

At Berkshire Direct, I worked on branding, logo development, stationery, and illustration work for a camp. It was hands-on and collaborative, the kind of environment where ideas moved quickly from concept to execution. At Excelsior Printing, I stepped into something deeper—not just a business, but a craft that had shaped my family for years. I saw engraving processes up close, learned how paper selection changes everything, and began to understand how color existed before digital tools—built through layering, mixing, and physical process. I also learned how scribes would mark out artwork for different colors, carefully separating intention before anything was ever printed. Giant rollers on old printing press machines moved with a kind of steady force that stayed with me.

I learned about Crane’s & Co., copper plate engraving, and the fact that printing is not just production—it is craft. And slowly, I started to understand why I had always been drawn to it.

The Berkshires and the Way I See the World

Outside of work, life was simple in the best way—golf courses, quiet drives, small towns, and nature everywhere. I had grown up visiting both sides of my family in the Berkshires, but living there during my first internships made me see it differently. The Berkshires taught me a deep appreciation for history and quality in what you make. And I didn’t realize it then, but that way of seeing things became part of how I design today.

What I Didn’t Realize I Was Learning

At the time, I thought I was learning processes. But I was really learning how ideas become physical objects, how imperfection still holds meaning, how printing is a craft—not just a process—and how design exists long before a screen is opened.

Most importantly, I was learning that creativity doesn’t begin in college or career decisions. Sometimes, it starts in a basement, with a box of paper you don’t yet understand.

The Detail That Started It All

Looking back, that 1/8” painted border on cotton paper still comes back to me. Because it wasn’t just a detail—it was an invitation to notice, to ask, and to learn how things are made. And in many ways, it was the beginning of everything I create today.

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