Webb-learned Skills in the Real World

After securing a summer internship at Cider, an LA-based apparel start-up, WSC senior George Huang ’24 used project management skills he developed in Webb’s Media Arts program to build a landing page that grossed $22,000.

George met the company’s co-founder and chief fashion officer Fenco Lin during Webb’s college fair with her younger brother, Ken Lin ’24. After three months of persistent follow-up by George, Ms. Lin brought him on as a summer intern at Cider’s offices in Guangzhou, China.

During his internship, George discovered there’s more to running an apparel company than fashion design. Cider utilizes data to inform every decision. The specifications of the landing page were laid out by market research. “Research is a really big part,” George shared.

Creating the landing page required George to coordinate with photographers, stylists, and copywriters. His experience managing projects in Studio Art class gave him the communication skills he needed at Cider. “In Studio Art you learn to distribute your work because it can’t all be done in one week,” said George. He knew how to budget sufficient time to communicate feedback from managers to his team and implement necessary changes.

George also had the opportunity to flex the PhotoShop skills he gained in the second phase of Media Art, a skillset not common in his department at Cider. “It was really helpful to the company to have someone who knows how to do both areas,” he said. If a photo for a campaign needed small adjustments, rather than send the image back to the art department and put the project on hold for 24 hours, George jumped into the fray.

“I said, ‘I actually know how to do Photoshop so I can take a look and see if I can help you,’” he shared. It was often a problem he knew how to solve using tools in Photoshop: covering small details or expanding the background behind the model. “Those were the things that I learned in Media Art.”