Graphic design student Petter Bülling experienced one particularly low moment during his summer internship at Artilleriet, a high-end home décor store. He was helping move things around for a photo shoot and he bumped into a really expensive pot. It shattered completely.

All in the life of a graphic design intern. “What can you do? You sweep it up and you move onto the next thing,” he said.

The sophomore returned home last summer to his native Sweden to intern at Artilleriet, a high-end urban store located in a Victorian house, that relies on a printed catalog and e-commerce website as part of its business plan.

Bülling worked closely with each of the company’s departments, warehouse managers, graphic designers, a photographer, and web page programmers and designers.

“Artilleriet is such an unusual and unique home decor store, it was so much fun and so interesting to see how they thought about bringing in new products,” he said. “The amount of work that goes behind putting everything together is amazing, and it gave me a good perspective on what truly needs to be done in order to be successful.”

Bülling focused on helping design a new company catalog. The design reflected a nostalgic tone with cream-colored paper and Victorian accents complimenting the European modern home décor and fixtures.

While it might seem an intimidating task to work around expensive products, Bulling, who plays hockey at Northland College, said he felt right at home. “We were like a big family, and every Monday we had a staff meeting over breakfast where new ideas were welcomed to be shared,” he said. “Their philosophy was all about equality and everyone pulling the rope in the same direction.”

Bülling also worked on the redesign of the e-commerce website to include an English language version, and bring an innovative design to the project. “The most challenging part for me was to get up to speed and get used to handling lots of different small projects at the same time—it was all about multitasking,” he said.

“I learned so much working with these creative individuals, even though at sometimes it was challenging. But that’s what graphic design is about, listen to your client and translate their thoughts into graphic designs”