Sophia@Capital
Hi! My name is Sophia Kim, and I am a rising junior majoring in Communication Design and minoring in Sound Design (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:·ﾟ✧ During the summer, I interned at Capitol Music Group under the Hollywood & Vine Intern Program. I got the opportunity to be part of the Creative Services department during my 9 weeks there.
First: Why I Chose the Music Industry
Coming from Atlanta where it is filled with various music genres and fashion styles, I have always been interested in art and music, especially the history and culture behind hip hop. Once I entered CMU, I noticed the many similarities design and music has. Through the various ways of communicating emotions, design and music gave me the opportunity to fuse those two passions with fashion, art, and culture.
Getting the call from Capitol Music Group, I was very excited to work at an iconic record label that has produced many of my favorite artists’ works (i.e. The Temptations, Banks, BJ the Chicago Kid).
Internship
The Hollywood & Vine Intern Program is not solely focused on design. There are various types of departments: Brand Partnerships & Sync, A&R, Sync, Video, Creative Services, etc. Each department had two interns. I was in the Creative Services department with one other intern, Rachel, who studies neuroscience and advertising.
The Creative Services department helps to shape the visual identity of Capitol’s artists from styling and logos to album packaging and visual campaigns. Through various channels including peer recommendations, preexisting relationships, Instagram, and Behance, the Creative Services department finds and contacts creatives for Capitol’s artists to work with.
To streamline and diversify this process of finding creatives, Rachel and I were tasked with creating a platform that makes connecting these creatives and the Creative Services department within CMG easier. With the help of our mentor, Nicole Frantz who is the head of the Creative Services department, we were able to meet various types of creatives (makeup artists, graphic designers, stylists) and gather research.
With this research, we created an initiative that consists of three parts: generating buzz online through Capitol’s social media platforms, developing a proprietary database, and cultivating relationships through community engagement (conferences and events).
Apart from the main project, I created a zine that focuses on the interns, their projects, the departments they worked in, and why they want to work in the music industry. Also, I designed t-shirts for the 2019 Hollywood & Vine Intern Program.
At the end of the internship, Rachel and I had to present our project in front of the entire company. This required a great amount of practice and prepping for the big day.
My work with Capitol Music Group is under NDA, so I cannot go into detail or show any visuals of the projects (if you want to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact me: [email protected]).
Working at Capitol Music Group
I got to work at the historic round building Capitol Music Group calls its headquarters. Everyone in the building has great amounts of respect and excitement for the rich history Capitol has to offer.
Throughout the internship, we had speaker series with various executives and department heads. It was interesting to listen to each of the speakers’ life stories and the different tasks each department takes on.
At the end of the internship, there was this week long event called Capitol Congress. The first day was the interns presentations, which took place in Studio A and B (these studios are places where Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole recorded). The second day was an all day event at Hollywood’s ArcLight Theater where Capitol recognizes the various sub-labels’ and artists’ accomplishments. Many guests came to the event and spoke, such as the founder of the Motown record label Berry Gordy, the founders of Quality Control Music Pee and Coach K, and the founder of S.M. Entertainment Lee Soo-Man. For me, I was in complete shock to see these people in person, especially the founders of the record labels/entertainment companies that I have known throughout my life.
The third and fourth days were team bonding days, which helped me meet people in various types of departments and locations.
Reflection
Overall, this internship has taught me a lot, starting from teamwork to getting myself out of my comfort zone. In the beginning of the internship, I was somewhat nervous by the fact that I was the only intern who studies design and that I wouldn’t have a design community to rely on. However, I became friends with one other intern Nikol who studies business and design. We were able to help each other although we were in different departments. I realized that a design community wasn’t the only community I needed, but I found people who I could rely on and learn from throughout my time at Capitol, such as the Innovation department interns Rachel G and Jakeob who built an app using code, the CFO of Capitol Music Group Geoffrey Harris who I talked to about design thinking.
This internship was a great introduction to what industry life is like and how I can apply my knowledge to this type of industry. I am so grateful that I got this opportunity to apply what I have learned at school to conversations in the office and out of the office. Also, I am glad that I got to meet all the people I have met, and through that, I got to build unforgettable friendships.
o(╥﹏╥)o
