Most students would be sad that their summer vacation is about to end, and a new school term is about to begin. It’s back to the daily grind of classes, homework, projects, and exams.

Unlike most students, I attend Drexel; So that means I was in classes all summer long with a full load. That finally ended last Wednesday, so I get a week to relax. After all of my friends have returned back to college for another year, I get home to have fun. It also means that instead of having to deal with classes, I get to spend the next six months working at Razorfish Health (one of Digitas Health’s many sister companies) as part of their UX team, and performing research and creating websites for pharmaceutical companies. I can’t wait to get started, because I know it’s going to be a blast, and I get to work with many of my old coworkers.

As for the rest of  this summer, it wasn’t all bad. One of my highlights of my summer had to be a three-day weekend in Washington D.C. with all my friends and a visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to see what my twin brother had been working on at his summer internship. (Which I still need to post pictures from the trip to my Flickr)

As much as I complain about having to deal with the woes of Drexel’s summer term, I’m still glad that I choose to attend Drexel and get the amazing opportunities that I have had when I am on co-op. It has made a huge impact on what I want to do for a career and at the same time reassured me that I’m on the right track.

That and the fact that I’m still too busy to update this blog regularly. At least I’m still constantly tweeting on my Twitter!

For the Fall-Winter 2010 co-op term, I was lucky enough to get a co-op job through Drexel as an Associate Interaction Designer at Digitas Health, a Publicis Groupe company. It was great experience, and honestly; I wish I was still at co-op rather than sitting in class.

As an Interaction Designer, I got to create both sitemaps and wireframes for upcoming pharmaceutical websites. I even created a few simple mobile websites. DH was a great place to get an internship and expand my portfolio and working knowledge of User Experience work. I hope that I can go back in six months when my next (and final) co-op cycle arrives.

User Experience has always been an area that I have enjoyed, mainly because it falls into the intersection of technology and design. I can also use some of the skills that I have learned doing print production (i.e The Triangle) and web design. Since when creating wireframes or other diagrams, you need to have them presented cleanly on a print document, but it still represents a website.

I would also like to thank all of my co-workers in the UX department for welcoming me to the team, and mentoring me along the process. The co-op would not have been as much fun with out all of you!

Wow, what a year it has been.

I can’t believe that I’m now a 3rd year “pre-junior” at Drexel, I’m now Managing Editor and an Editorial Board Member of Drexel’s independent student newspaper, The Triangle, and starting my second co-op internship at a digital marketing agency in Center City Philadelphia.

Let’s jump back to my last blog post, where I was on assignment for The Triangle at the opening of the Philadelphia Apple Store in September. I probably should have written a few blog posts between then and now, but the gist of my life is this (after the jump):

Read the rest of this entry »

When I think of  holiday gadgets, I only think of one thing. New Cellphones.

This year  for the last issue of The Triangle, I deciding to put together a simple guide identifying all of the best smartphones on each of the four major networks. I also made sure to include a section on the more budget-friendly smartphones for those who don’t want to break the bank.

Take a look at the few article at The Triangle’s website. The full size PDF is available there as well.

Holiday Gift Guide: Cellphones

Overall, it was a lot of fun to take this feature all the way from writing the article, to art direction, and finally to layout and production. Thanks to Sarah Michelson for taking all of the additional photography for the article.

Did I miss a phone that you think is awesome? Let me know in the comments.

Last Friday, I got a chance to go to the grand opening of the Philadelphia Apple store. And by chance, I mean wait in line for and hour and a half and get a free t-shirt. Sure I’ve done  similar crazy things in the past, but this one didn’t even have much of a point to it. I didn’t even buy anything. Sure, I did get an extra-large t-shirt that says “Walnut Street”, but that’s it. Five minutes after I entered the store, I was ready to leave. I did however, stay longer.

And to a greater point, I did write an article about the entire event for The Triangle, as well as take a ton of photos.

Take a look at my article here:

New Apple store opens in Philly

Take a look at my Flickr set here:

Apple Store Philadelphia

What happens when you take the 7 story expanse of concrete above the entrance to Nesbitt Hall, and a large projector? You get the Social Graffiti Project. The project was created by six digital media students here at Drexel for their senior thesis project.

Tweets displayed on wall as ‘Social Graffiti’

Take a look at the story behind the article, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Triangle is one of my favorite places to be. Not just because of all the great people there, but because I get to chance to publicly express my creative side, whether it be laying out a basic page; creating a fun, but informative feature; taking pictures; or (my least favorite activity) writing an article or editorial.

This week, I got to create one of the most fun features of the year and even better, in a two page full color spread! The Orange Brick Awards are the annual funny, snarky, self-deprecating  awards The Triangle’s editorial board gives out where we poke fun at ourselves and Drexel. While I didn’t have to write anything, I did take control of creating and laying out the spread from start to finish. I even took an original photograph for the background.

Unfortunately, the only way to really appreciate the spread is to see it in print, due to its immense size. So, if you have a chance, go pickup a copy of  the June 6th issue of The Triangle. It will be on newsstands until June 25th. For those of you  not in the University City area, you can view the feature online in my portfolio at KeithHobin.com

A large part of my time has been in class and working at The Triangle, but whenever I get a chance I bust out my camera and take some pictures. Take a look at what I’ve been up to, in photos, after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since I actually wrote something for my University’s student news paper, The Triangle. Lately,  I have just been doing production work to get the paper laid-out and ready to be sent off to the printer, as well as a bunch of various administrative tasks.

This week, I had the chance to interview the founder of a new iPhone app development company, Patrick Casady of Caffeine Fish, which based out of the Philadelphia area. Patrick is actually a graduate of Drexel. His company released a new iPhone app called Trainboard with the daily SEPTA rider in mind. Take a look at my review below:

SEPTA iPhone ‘app’ mediocre

Well, these past six months have flown by. Since September, I have being working at SAP Americas as a End User Services intern. It has been a great experience, and I’ve gotten to do a ton of different things besides just fixing peoples computers and troubleshooting, like working with A/V equipment, working with SAP systems, using Norton Ghost, and being in a corporate environment.

I really have enjoyed my time at SAP, and am going to miss going there on a daily basis (as much as I disliked my one hour commute via SEPTA). All of my co-workers were really helpful in showing me the ropes and getting acclimated to SAP and their processes. I was just a great experience overall.

I am excited (and a bit scared) to get back into my classes are improve my skill set and learn new things. It’s only scary because I haven’t been to class in nine months, and I’m worried about getting back into the cycle of studying and stressing out.

And, as soon as my Co-Op at SAP is over, I’m right into starting to find my next one. Not sure where I’ll end up, but I know it will be exciting.