During an internship with Indianapolis apparel brand ROCKaBLOCK, Adam Smith, a Purdue Polytechnic student in Indianapolis, helped lay the groundwork for a new augmented reality application, designed and animated key components, and worked on a full rebrand for one of the company’s major clients.
Smith, a student in Purdue’s themed entertainment design major in Indianapolis, spent nearly eight months as a design and production intern, where he laid the groundwork for the company’s new app, Rock AR.
"It's an augmented reality app where we can enhance apparel by adding animations, voice acting, music—basically making the apparel come to life," Smith explained. "I helped work on all the animations that you'll see on the app, at least for now. I also designed the UI in basically the way I thought it would look best."
While he had prior experience with a class project developing an interactive map for Purdue University in Indianapolis, this was his first professional foray into UI/UX (user interface/user experience) design.
"I really didn't have prior expertise in UI and UX design until I took the intro class my freshman year, where we worked on [UI prototyping tool] Figma, and app and web UI, and I really enjoyed doing it," Smith said.
His role at ROCKaBLOCK was diverse. Beyond his work on the app, Smith was responsible for a complete brand overhaul for a client, the Midwest Clinic, an international music convention and organization in Chicago. He developed a new logo, color palette and typography to create a new brand identity. He also learned the hands-on process of screen printing, from prepping screens to folding the final product.
"It was cool being on that side, seeing how we get designs in and how we send designs out, manufacture our own products," Smith said. "It was cool to go beyond mock projects. It's nice having real projects in my portfolio that employers will look at and go, 'Oh, he has real world experience.'"
Smith found the opportunity through an email from Christian Rogers, assistant dean for Purdue Polytechnic in Indianapolis. The internship was initially set to end in May but ROCKaBLOCK’s founder Rockland Page extended it through August.
Smith leaned on skills he developed in his Purdue coursework to adapt quickly to new demands, such as learning a new animation program on the fly. "I was able to use a lot of my skills from Adobe After Effects that I learned in classes to help basically, like almost overnight, learn Adobe Animate to be able to make the animations for Rock AR," he said.
He also acknowledged the mentorship of several Purdue Polytechnic faculty members, including Michael Cole, Jason Guy and Josh Polk, who helped him build his skills in graphic design and UI/UX.
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