A glimpse into the summer intern experience: 2023 edition

Internships are vital in guiding and kickstarting careers, as some of the most valuable life skills cannot be taught in a conventional classroom. Each summer, we select an ambitious group of interns to gain hands-on experience and mentorship from succoring managers and peers. During the past eight weeks working alongside seasoned brand experts, our interns adopted our simplicity mindset and learned to navigate the branding world in typical Siegel+Gale fashion: smart, nice, unstoppable and inclusive. As the summer draws to a close, our interns answer, How has your work at Siegel+Gale changed the lens through which you view brands? 

Account Management
Aidan Pachino
My work has taught me that brands are more than just taglines and images; they are an experience and a promise delivered. The enemy is complexity, so to combat that, the Account Management team works to keep both the client and our team on track to deliver a simple brand experience for a target audience. I have learned techniques in research, factors that shape the perspective of a given brand, and the impact it all can have on distinguishing one’s business. These lessons will undoubtedly influence my future work.

Research & Insights
Eman Mozaffar
One of the first things I discovered as an intern is that we don’t just know brands, we experience them. And a lot of what makes a great brand is more deliberate than you’d think! You can measure different qualities against one another, hone in on what matters most, and determine what a company should focus on when crafting its customer experiences. It’s been cool to see that process from start to finish.

Strategy
Jennifer Kahn
My work has enhanced my understanding of how facts intertwine with creativity to fuel a brand’s success. Siegel+Gale’s motto, “Simple is Smart,” has truly become a baseline for my analysis, slides, and communication. I am so grateful to have worked with such a diverse and talented group of people in tackling brand challenges this summer!

Emilie Hofele
Working at Siegel+Gale has transformed my perspective on brands by emphasizing their role as experiences. I’ve realized that every aspect of a brand, from its color palette to its values and language, contributes to the overall experience. This experience is how brands deliver on their purpose. We deconstruct brands to their essence, eliminating complexity and chaos and instead focusing on simplicity. In Strategy, we use this simplicity to craft a strategic path toward a compelling brand experience.

Naming
Parker Eboli
Working at Siegel+Gale has opened my eyes to the world of branding—how brands are not just words, colors and pictures, but are intricately composed to create a story. My role as a namer is unique because the brand name is the opening line of that story. With simplicity at the heart of our work, brands can breathe life, inspire creativity and share knowledge.

Brand Communication
Stephanie Bucuroaia
As a Brand Communication intern, my experience working on the intern project and connecting with my team has redefined how I interpret language. Especially in New York City, every street feels like a playground for branding. The most interesting perspective I’ve gained is thinking about a brand as a person– their voice, personality, and mannerisms all play a role in shaping their identity in the market. It’s exciting to develop the toolkit for understanding how and why brands choose to communicate in the way they do.

Experience
Haylee Lee
As the work I’ve done at Siegel+Gale pertained mostly to designing digital experiences, I’ve become more attentive to the experience of entering and browsing a brand’s website. I’ve also started paying attention to other signatures, like newsletters and how some companies design their physical shops. I’ve realized how intentional brands can be in curating a customer’s experience. Overall, I’m situating myself in the creator role more than a consumer role in my everyday life.

Brand-led Change
Erica Nam
My experience has renewed my appreciation for brands, especially ones that demonstrate simplicity. More specifically, being a part of the Brand-led Change team has further taught me not only brands’ external but also internal value. Brands play key roles in informing and shaping an organization’s culture and an engaged employee experience. I find it exciting that I can participate in this kind of meaningful, people-focused work!

Design
Anna (Yu Jung) Jung
Through my experience, I’ve realized that brands are not just about logos and marketing campaigns but rather the embodiment of a company’s values and the emotional connection they establish with their audience. Siegel+Gale’s emphasis on simplicity has shown me the profound impact of clear brand communication in building strong relationships. As a Design intern, I gained an appreciation for the immense potential to use design to make a difference in today’s competitive market.

Matthew Cuschieri
The work I’ve been able to take part in has changed how I view where a brand’s impact takes place. Instead of being confined to consumers, a brand can change the internal company culture. Working within the Design team, my views on simplicity in branding evolved. I learned a simple brand is easily understood with concise messaging and considered visual choices.

Creative Services
Nate Krohn
As this summer’s Creative Services intern, Siegel+Gale has offered me exciting new avenues to approach and study brands. We engage with brands through a truly multidisciplinary lens. This approach is embodied by all teams throughout the entire process of creating a truly effective brand experience. As someone from a primarily production and design background, this holistic method of viewing a brand has proven greatly valuable to my own practice and work.

Marketing & Business Development
Lauren Wechman
My summer at Siegel+Gale showed me that when a brand creates its identity, every element is crafted with an emphasis on experience. Effective marketers excel at embracing simplicity, allowing the various moving parts to seamlessly write a unified story that is packaged with a bow and presented on our internal marketing channels. The beauty behind branding is how the brand essence is handled with care and respect throughout the process, upholding the values of both the brand leaders and consumers.

Brooke Bisceglia
I learned that a brand is the sum of many parts, and to achieve simplicity, those parts must converge at what we call the intersection of clarity and surprise. Brands come to life through color, shape, font, taglines and company values; they exude personality at every touch point, and it is all for a purpose. On the Marketing team, we work together in service to Siegel+Gale’s brand. We keep our brand salient through amplification and storytelling, using the sum of the creative decisions that went into our brand’s creation to advance business.

Human Resources
Russell Eustace
My work this summer has greatly simplified my approach to analyzing a brand’s success. As a Human Resources intern, I understand that building a simple brand starts with the employees. Through learning about what attributes make a brand successful, I have gained a deeper understanding of why I admire certain brands. At Siegel+Gale, I have become familiar with the various ingredients necessary to form a dynamic brand that can achieve long-term prosperity and adapt to the changes in the industry.

Each intern came to us with a unique background and an equally fresh take on the industry. Like our clients, they experienced each step of the branding process, from ideation to finished product. Through our championed simplification process, our interns funneled a world of information into meaningful lessons that will guide them in their career trajectories.