STA Blog

The Carranza Chicano Archive Website

By

The Carranza Chicano Archive Website

Client: Jonathan Cortez, the Carranzas

Task: Create a website/branding to introduce The Carranza Chicano Archive.

Status: In progress, implementing

Logo Design

Clean, Iconography of the Chicana/o movement inspired

A moodboard

I started the design process by looking at inspiration. The client wanted the design assets to reference iconography from within the Chicano movement, while keeping a dynamic look. The client also wanted the color palette to be made up of deep burnt orange, mustard yellow, navy  blues, and forest greens.

Initial designs

Abstract Banner

Create a repeatable abstract motif/banner graphic for the site. Indigenous iconography (Aztec & Mayan).

Possible Site Mock-Ups

Several options of implementations of the above assets.

Incorporating a Cultural Symbol

The client wanted to include a Hunab-Ku somewhere on the homepage, so I tried several different variations and placements.

We ended up choosing to going with it being in the hero section, with a transparent background.

See the live site!

https://sites.utexas.edu/carranzaarchive

Winter Break 2025

By

Winter Break 2025

This break was mainly a chance for me to rest after the craziness that was last semester. That said, during the first week, I worked for LAITS a little bit and also worked on my portfolio :’). For fun, I caught up with old friends from high school, went on a cruise to the Caribbean with my family, and watched a ton of Star Wars!

Winter Break

By

Winter Break Projects!!

As I come back as an STA for this spring, I am beginning the semester by reflecting on how I spent my time over break. After a long, busy semester, I definitely felt it was necessary to catch up on my rest. However, I also spent a lot of time working on various projects as well.

Texas Lassos Digital Marketing Content

At the end of last semester, I was appointed as the digital marketing chair for Texas Lassos. So over break, I spent time creating various materials for this semester’s recruitment season.

Here is the recruitment calendar! I used Procreate for this and it was a bit tedious- this post took a while, but I am very proud of the final result.

Here is the recruitment teaser video! This project was a lot of fun because after designing the layout, book cover, book pages, and bolo tie in Adobe Illustrator, I transferred the files into Adobe After Effects in order to create the opening book effect. I have basically zero experience on After Effects, so this was honestly very intimidating to me, but I found a few tutorials that really helped, and after many hours, I had my final result. I am also very proud of this project- the final version is exactly what I envisioned.

Here I have two flyers for events I created using Canva Pro & Adobe Photoshop. This was a fun experience because it allowed me to play more around with Canva- I tend to avoid using it because of its limiting quality of being able to mostly just use existing assets, but for these flyers with a very quick turnaround, it was incredibly convenient.

Last project I worked on prior to the semester starting was a graphic for an upcoming profit share. I used Adobe Photoshop for this, creating two size variations, and am very happy with how they turned out.

Final Blog Post

By

Goodbye STA Team!

It’s hard to believe, but I am officially a college graduate, which means it’s time for me to move on from my position as an STA. I am truly grateful for my time at LAITS. This team felt welcoming and supportive from the very start and I met a lot of wonderful people along the way. I credit a lot of my artistic and personal growth to the experiences I had here, so thank you <3

SOC325K Course Graphics

First Drafts

Final Design

Summer Marketing 2026: Christmas Post

By

Summer Marketing 2026: Christmas Post

The past month, I have been tasked with creating a winter break-centered post for the summer marketing social media campaign.

I began with a few sketches of various possible iterations. Feedback guided me in the direction of the fourth sketch, Bevo in an ornament.

Initial iterations/color palette options.

Refining of details and color palette adjustments.

Upon receiving feedback, I pivoted and adjusted the design to show Bevo in a snowglobe instead. Shown above is some of that progress.

Nicholas suggested adding a wooden texture to the table the snowglobe is placed on, as shown, as well as hooves to Bevo.

Tweaking the shadows + adding a gradient background.

Bevos’s shadow adjusted, potential LAITS snowflake logo added.

Logo adjustments.

Final post with the summer marketing logo instead.

Winter 2025

By

STA End of Year Celebration Flyer

Project Details

We will be holding a end of year celebration the day after the last class day to celebrate all of our amazing STAs. There will be food, drinks and a lot of fun. With that, we need a flyer that helps promote this social. Design a fun and playful flyer that encourages people to join the festivities. The flyer should feel inclusive and if there are people illustrations, ensure that it captures all of the STA groups. 

Drafts

I started by creating some rough sketches of the flyer to figure out the layout. I wanted it to feel warm, playful, and welcoming, so I went with a very whimsical illustration style. The notes I received from my Art Director were to add more animals to the illustration to make it feel like a group celebration and to make each animals represent an STA department.

In my next draft, I added 2 more animals and gave each of them an object to represent their STA team (ex. headphones for audio and a camera for video). At this point, I also brought the illustration into Illustrator to add the text and paper texture overlay. A few more notes I got were to add pizza to the table and to change the color of the drinks.

Final Design

And here’s the final design! I’m really happy with how this turned out, I think it’s very cute and I love the colors!