STA Blog

Kate Shih

Kate Shih

UT in Context Website Redesign

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UT in Context Website Redesign: Sweatt v. Painter

UT In Context requested a redesign of their existing website (https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/). By the time the project was handed to me, the site had already been modernized. What the client wanted me to do was to create pages that showcased their physical Sweatt v. Painter gallery in a digital manner.

The site originally looked like this:

I liked the idea of having a separate page for each wall; however, I felt that the navigation buttons laid out in the cardinal directions was a bit clunky. My main goals going forward were to make navigation intuitive and to lay out all the information in a visually appealing and non-overwhelming way.

My next step was to mock up the pages on Figma:

Interact with the mockup here!

I then created a map to help guide visitors to the physical location:

Project status: Waiting for feedback

Summer 2025

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Summer 2025

This summer, I went home (California) and got the chance to work for local government. I helped them add new sections to their website, as well as created some marketing materials!

Check out what I did below:

I added a new section to their website catered towards the older population. This included revamping their 50+ Program’s web presence, as well has adding a resource hub.

Visit the live site here: https://www.losaltosca.gov/660/Aging-Adult-Resources

I also got the chance to do a bunch of graphic design work:

Aside from my local government work, I also did some work for LAITS, pursued some side projects, hiked by the ocean, and ate a lot of ice cream (dairy free, of course).

I also made a cat friend ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

Texas German Phonology (TGDP)

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Texas German Phonology Poster (TGDP)

This banner is part of TGDP’s “linguistics of Texas German” mini-series. I was given the information and photos that go on the poster, as well as a couple of reference posters.

Here was the first draft of the poster:

Project status: Waiting for feedback

The Rise and Fall of German in Texas Posters (TGDP)

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The Rise and Fall of German in Texas Posters (TGDP)

I was tasked with continuing to work on the Texas German Dialect Project retractable posters. These posters had already been in the works, and I had to adjust based on client feedback. The client wanted 3 vertical posters with an icon key. Additionally, the client wanted the dates on the timelines to be proportional to the actual time (for example, if the date is labelled “1930-1934”, it should be clearly indicated that the event took place over that span of time).

Here are the posters that I was given to start with:

Changes I had to make:

  • Create icons and develop a visual key
  • Work on making date ranges look like a range on the poster

Creating Icons

This first thing I had to do was develop a visual key. The client wanted icons that represented 5 different types of events: society, immigration, schools, newspapers, and key event. I used Illustrator to draw icons, staying on brand with the colors given to me.

Society
Immigration
Schools
Newspapers
Key Event

Redesigning the Posters

Now that I had icons, I could move on to putting the posters themselves together. The main thing I wanted to focus on was how to show the date range. I settled on added a transparent box behind the event description and using arrows to indicate it’s date range.

After using this technique and adding the icons, the posters ended up looking like this:

Second Drafts

After sending my designs to the client, I got feedback to make sure that the events were proportionally distanced from each other and to add photos + captions to the poster.

Project status: Waiting for feedback

History SZB Posters

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History SZB Posters

I was assigned to help create posters documenting the life of George I. Sanchez for the SZB building. I was given pictures and text, which I was then to format on posters using Adobe InDesign. The process mainly consisted of cleaning up the photos in Photoshop (sometimes converting to grayscale, removing blemishes, and adjusting them so they weren’t skewed), getting all the elements onto the page, and then rearranging them to make sure that the text was not too overwhelming and that the images were big enough.

View the exhibit:

Save the Date

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Save the Date

The theme for STA Presentations this year was movie productions! The presentation poster was themed around “The Peanuts Movie” film poster, so Save the Date was to be similarly themed.

First Drafts

I decided to display the important information on a clapper board to keep with the movie theme. However, after doing that, the background looked really empty, so I added film strips behind it. I used the LAITS logo colors as the accent colors for my design.

Additionally, I came up with a secondary design because I felt that the colors on the clapper board may be unnecessary, and the black letters for the less important information (“Save the Date”, “College of Liberal Arts”) might be too bold. I also switched the order of the colored film strips in the background (and brightened them) to match the order they are in in the LAITS logo.

Lastly, I created an option with a different accent font choice. This is a font that matches the one on “The Peanuts Movie” poster, so I thought we may want to see what that looked like too.

This is an alternate design that I thought could work as well. I was also able to get the STA roles information in using this layout.

For style one, I received feedback to:

  • Add STA photos to the film strips with a color overlay
  • Replace “College of Liberal Arts” with the LAITS logo

For style two, I received feedback to:

  • Try and add more personality, as the black was a little overwhelming, and it wasn’t very dynamic
  • Rework the hierarchy/arrangement so that the date is more prominent
  • Add the LAITS logo

Second Drafts

For the first version, I added the STA cutouts to all the film strip rectangles because it looked a little odd to have some empty, even if they were covered with something in front. I also moved “Save the Date” to the slate because it became hard to read in the top left corner when I added the STA photos.

For the second version, I tried to add some movement by creating a new, curved film strip and tilting the film slate. I also added the date/time/location to the film strip because it was more prominent there and put the STA roles under the slate.

We decided to go with style 1, and I received feedback to:

  • reposition the STA photos so that they weren’t being blocked by the film slate
  • make the LAITS logo grayscale

Third draft

After adjusting the graphic according to the feedback I received, it ended up looking like this:

We then decided that there was too much white space in certain places, so we decided to use the more dynamic photos of STAs that were also used on the presentation poster. After deciding this, the graphic looked like this.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this assignment was a fun way for me to practice both my layout and graphic design skills. I don’t have as much practice with Illustrator, so making graphics for this assignment was a new and fun challenge. I’m also happy that we decided on adding the STAs inside the filmstrips—I think it’s a lot more visually interesting and unique. Here is the final design!