Spring 2025 STA Roster Posters

Project Overview: Design 2 posters that display the STAs, their names, the main title, and that differentiate between the teams. The design will be based on “Movie Concession Stands”. The idea is to have the STAs represented as candy boxes/bags of candy.

I started by sketching out some layouts and finding inspiration photos. My initial vision was to have the teams represented by different bars/bags/boxes of candy.

This is the first draft I created in Photoshop following the original design. It was at this point in the project that we decided to pivot on the design to something more illustrative to simplify the layout, fill the empty space, and save time.

I moved to Illustrator to try a new layout, created with the help of my manager De’sha. In this version, each STA would be on their own mini candy box. This way everyone is equally represented and can blend into the packaging more seamlessly.

I designed some simple candy box designs with placeholders for the photos and names, then got to adding all 75 STAs to the document.

With all the STAs in their candy boxes, I could focus on the border and title design. I was directed to make it look more like the display case from my original inspiration pictures. I also added a key beneath the title identifying each of the teams.

I received some more feedback to shorten the title, turn the boxes on their sides, lighten the background, and add some elements to fill the empty space on the bottom shelf.

In another round of feedback I added some effects to the title, removed the border completely, darkened the color of the shelves, and simplified the popcorn to match the stylistic design of the rest of the poster.

In a final round of edits to make the design look more like a concession stand, I added a 3D perspective to the boxes, changed the title font and changed the key design.

My Thoughts: This project was a little bit of a rollercoaster, but I definitely learned a lot. In hindsight, I think I should have pivoted to Illustrator sooner as I spent a lot of time on a draft that ended up being scrapped in the end. Additionally, asking for more help and feedback in the early stages of the project would have saved time and energy fixing things later on.

Overall, I think the posters turned out fun, playful, and very colorful.

2024-25 STA Blog Banner Design

Project Overview: Design a banner that presents all of the STAs and their names to act as the Design/Coding STA Blog header.

This is the background design I created inspired by the UT turtle pond. I drew this in Krita, then transferred it to Illustrator, vectorized it using image trace, and added text.

By the time I went to add the STAs to the image, some new members had joined our team, so I did some rearranging and duplicating of lilypads to fit everyone. Here’s the final product!

Design STA Hiring Flyer

Project Overview: Design a visually engaging flyer that promotes hiring for Graphic Design and Web Development Student Technology Assistants (STAs).

This project was a large learning curve for me. One of the bigger hurdles was balancing design with practicality (fitting all the required text onto the page). The first drafts either didn’t have a clear message (left) or were too text-heavy (right). Even after condensing the information and playing around with the colors and elements, nothing was really working.

As Leilani (the Art Director) and I discussed possible edits to the above drafts, I created a third option that is more visually engaging, but that ultimately ran into the same problems: did not look like a graphic design hiring flyer and was too busy.

At this point it was decided that the flyer should have more visuals. The text was condensed even further to include a new hook (“Are you creative?”), the job title, 3 open positions, a few bullet points about the job, and how to apply.

With this feedback, I modified the very first draft to lean more heavily into a graphic design/digital look.

My Final Thoughts: I’m not entirely happy with the final design. I think it’s a little static and the background is plain, BUT it does have more of a graphic design-vibe and a clearer hierarchy than the previous versions. Overall, I learned a lot about designing layouts and what to prioritize when creating a poster with a purpose. I think in the future I’ll spend more time in the thumbnail step so I have more stability when jumping into Illustrator.

Texas Politics Project – Internship Flyer and Digital Display Ads

Project Overview: Re-design/update the 2016 TxP Internship flyer to reflect the updated Texas Politics Project Website.

2016 Flyer / Draft 1 / Revision from client feedback / Revision from art director feedback:

Client Feedback on Draft 1: Preference for the banner look to the chevron look. Incorporate more clean lines to reflect the re-designed website. Replace header text.

Art Director Feedback: Change the fill of the icons and add a drop shadow to make them stand out.

Notes: This project has been a good exercise in layout design and incorporating feedback. I like the changes made from “Draft 1” to “Revision from art director feedback”. I think for the first draft I stuck too closely to the original flyer. The latest draft feels a bit more modern.

Final Product

Photoshop Training – Photo Sourcing and Color Grading

In-between the projects I’ve been working on so far this semester, I had time to do a quick training in Photoshop to enhance my understanding of color and blending modes in Photoshop.

Activity 1

For this first activity I was told to choose a scene from a movie that had an interesting color palette. I chose this screenshot from Into the Spiderverse:

Next, I used Image > Mode > Indexed Color to choose reduce the image down to its 8 most prominent colors. Then, Image > Mode > Color Table… > Save and Import Swatches to turn these colors into a usable color palette.

I then found a random stock photo (left) to apply the color scheme to (right). To do this, I added a gradient map to the image using the colors from above. I then played around with blending modes and opacity until the colors weren’t too overpowering.

Activity 2

For this next technique, you find a source image that you want to pull colors from to apply to another photo. I chose this as my color source image:

And this as the photo I wanted to edit / Then, using Image > Adjustment > Match color and playing around with color luminance, intensity, and fade, I was left with this:

Notes: Recently, I’ve been interested in how color and light works, so I figured this training would be insightful. I think it’s interesting how much color affects the mood of a picture. Applying the bright color scheme from the Spiderverse screenshot gave the stock portrait more intensity and volume. In the second exercise, the edited photo feels colder than the original. It looks like the first photo was taken in the spring and the second in the winter.

Fall STA Roster Posters

Video Team

Project Overview: Design a poster based on the “Love Actually” movie poster that showcases the video STAs.

What I Learned: For this project I got to practice my photo editing skills by adjusting the lighting on some of the STAs to make them look uniform with everyone else. I also practiced my layout design skills when creating the spaces to place each of their headshots.

Notes: One of my favorite parts was deciding which headshot to use for each STA. I tried to create a balance of looking at the camera vs. not and looking to the left vs. the right to make the final product look cohesive and as playful as the original poster. Overall, I really like how this turned out!

Tech Integration Team

Project Overview: Design a poster based on the “Men in Black” movie poster that showcases the Tech Integration STAs.

Process/What I Learned: This poster presented some new challenges. First, I focused on creating the title. After I found a font that looked like the original, I added a gradient to make the edges of the words darker than the center. Then, I created the light rays to go behind. To do this I used the Radial Blur effect in Photoshop on a brush stroke of blue/white. After adding the stars and submitting for feedback, I was given the suggestion to add the suits, watches, and sunglasses. To do this, I cut out the suits, sleeves, and watches from the original poster. I then used the warp tool to fit the suits to the STAs as accurately as I could without distorting the photos. I also cut out Drew’s hair and each of their hands to layer on top of the suits. Here’s them without the suits for reference:

Notes: I’m glad we decided to go with the full Men in Black outfits. I think it’s fun and makes the whole poster come together. It also allowed me to practice cutting out objects in Photoshop.

My Summer!

Entering the World of Web Development

This summer I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try to learn some code! I took a course called Introduction to Web Development under the Global Career Accelerator Program in which I learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It was fast-paced and a little daunting at times, but I gained a good foundation for the work that goes into front-end web development as well as some professional development skills like teamwork, communication, time management, and giving/receiving feedback.

I’m hoping to retain the skills I gained by continuing to learn new web dev techniques and strengthening my grasp of the concepts from the course.

Trip to California

Now, for the (more) fun stuff 😉

I got to visit California! Among the places we traveled to were San Francisco, Monterey, Big Sur, and Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was absolutely gorgeous and getting to see the stars in the sky without any light pollution was a first time experience I’ll never forget.

Other Stuff

When I wasn’t hiking (supposedly) beginner-level trails and trudging through the trial and error process that is coding, I spent my time reading, drawing, watching The Bear/anime/the Olympics with my family, baking Olympic chocolate muffins with my best friend, and enjoying lazy days inside.

Now, it’s time to get back into the routine of school and my STA journey!