Hello! Im Tomás, a new Design STA. Career wise, I currently focus on graphic design, photography, and occasionally some 3D VFX. As for some of my more personal interests and hobbies, I love learning about history, language, and politics. I am a class of 2028 Middle Eastern Studies major in the Arabic language track.

During my first few days as an STA, I have been focusing on getting accustomed to the work environment and finishing up my orientation tasks. One of my favorite tasks so far has been the STA Bio.

My last piece of work to scratch off the list is to finish up my caricature and then continue on with any future tasks.

Studio Backdrops Redesign (July Update)

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Last time I talked about the studio backdrops redesign, I had created and edited these four designs as well as selecting stock photos that fit the news anchor style! Now it was time to studio test!

After studio testing with De’sha, the main revisions we thought of were:

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– narrowing down stock images selection

– repositioning the designs to fit the screen better

– either blurring or making more designs visible depending on the backdrops

– incorporating more of the jewel tone colors

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For the next revision, I was intrigued about how the current designs would look in different colors! I gravitated a lot towards topaz blue at first, but maybe some other colors might suit other designs better!

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On July 1st, De’sha and I tested the revised backdrops! The variety of colors was a great addition to the testing as well! Again, we did feel like we can make some more changes for next time which were:

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– some colors needed to be more saturated

– replace or remove textures

– bring up the opacity and blurriness on some designs

– photo edit some stock images

– gather more stock images

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On July 9th, De’sha and I went back to studio testing with the updated designs! I found some more stock images that captured the news anchor style but we decided to narrow the selection more for the next studio testing date! However some designs still needed some updates like:

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– bringing up the opacity of texts

– revising tints of stock images

– reformatting the display of designs

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Before my summer shift ended, I updated the background based on our revisions! Until we go studio testing again, this is where we left off! Overall, this project really let me practice my graphic skills and was such a fun project to end summer with!

Summer 2025!

This summer I traveled, hung out with friends, went to my first convention, and drew as much as possible!

Travel

In July, my brother, mom, and I flew to Arizona to visit family, including a new baby cousin! While here we went on a roadtrip around parts of Utah and Nevada. I burnt to a crisp in the sun, but the views were worth it.

Art

When I wasn’t traveling, I was left with a lot of free time, so I decided to draw everyday — a goal I’ve had for a while. I worked on some fundamental skills like form and perspective and am happy to say I am noticing some pretty significant improvements! I’m also studying figure drawing with Tom Fox’s book Anatomy for Artists: Drawing Form and Pose. Thinking about the body as fundamental 3D forms feels like I’ve unlocked a new part of my brain.

In addition to sketching for fun, I also did some more art commissions. In total, I did 15 overlay illustrations and 2 sticker sheets for a special edition set of the Lockwood & Co book series! It was a lot, but they were very fun to do and they pushed my illustration skills to the limit.

SUMMER 2025

— Hecho En Texas —

This was the first project I worked on during the summer. I was tasked to create assets for a pressbook. It was a new type of project to me, but I found it similar to course graphics. (Still in progress during this time)

Logo Sketches:

Logo Vectorized:

Textbook Cover Iterations:

Section Banners:

— Course Graphics–

Canvas Homepage Banner and Dashboard for GOV310L:

Text edits to SOC302:

New graphics for ARH301 (Still in progress at this time):

Buttons:

Canvas Dashboard and Homepage:

Powerpoint Slides:

Ipad Overlay Options:

TA Backdrop:

— Roster Poster–

I was excited to be assigned another poster! The theme for my particular poster is Pop Art. Exploring different iterations was so fun- especially for the Keith Haring designs.

Comic Iterations:

Keith Haring Iterations: