In the summer of 2023, I participated in the Outreachy program as an intern with Fedora Badges Design. As an avid user and advocate for open-source software, this was a natural progression for my life and career, albeit one that I'd never thought I'd take. My mentors were Marie Nordin and Smera Goel, and I worked alongside fellow intern, Chris Onoja Idoko.
The journey
This is a brief highlight of my journey, but you can learn more on my Outreachy Blog.
Application Process
The Outreachy program serves as an introduction to the world of open source — a world of collaboration, genuinely doing the work, building community, and standing on the shoulders of others who've come before you. My experience, even just getting selected, involved all of these things.
Being a naturally helpful person, I enjoyed the application and selection process just about as much as I would come to enjoy the actual internship. This is because I had an opportunity to assist other applicants with one of my favourite open-source design tools (Inkscape). This time was also an opportunity to get acquainted with the community, design language, and processes of Fedora Badges Design.
The Internship
After a rather competitive application process, I was selected for the internship, which was, for me, a validation of my efforts, and of my dedication to the process. Once the internship began, I was able to more formally meet my mentors and fellow intern. We got to work pretty much right away, due to the nature of the application process — which allowed us to get up to speed with Fedora Badges Design through and through. Much of the initial work involved getting things organized and documented, since Fedora Badges has been around for quite some time, and there are hundreds of badges to keep track of.
Additionally, I had to balance the grind of organizing work with design and other tasks. This included familiarizing myself with future plans, drawing conclusions to build guidelines for the future, and honing my design skills in a style (more or less “cartoon-style”) I'd previously been unaccustomed to.
| Askbot Curious Penguin | Beach Bum | FAD Design |
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Throughout the internship, I was instrumental in a massive transformation effort for Fedora Badges, one which is still ongoing, and for which I will continue to be present as much as time and life permit. We transferred over 600 badge designs from the old badge design format to the new style. Additionally, I managed to introduce some new design elements that have been agreed upon and will continue to influence Fedora Badges Design for the foreseeable future.
It was a lot of work, but the work was worth it, and I came away with a new respect for fellow designers and open-source contributors. After all, many of these folks are unpaid volunteers who do it for the love of the cause.
It's worth noting that while the work we were doing was pretty intense, we were building on the work of others as well, and laying a foundation for others to build on in the future. This is the transparent truth of open-source work.
The conclusion
I quite enjoyed working with the team and having an opportunity to both learn new techniques and bring my own experiences and ideas to the fore. I had the opportunity to attend the 2023 Creative Freedom Summit during this time and was invited to present at this year's summit. For more on that experience, see my post about the Creative Freedom Summit (2024).
