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October Projects: COERLL and Spring 2026 Roster Poster

These past few weeks with the help of Shanda I worked on a book cover for COERLL, which involved making a text logo and map graphic. using mainly Illustrator for this project, I was able to figure out many more small and useful tips for my workflow, especially when it comes to working with vectors and customizing fonts.

-COERLL Book Cover-

-Spring 2026 Roster Poster-

At the same time, I have been working on the Spring 2026 Roster Poster, and have been experimenting with various styles for a main title graphic:

So far, I have chose to continue with concept #1, but I will also try and see how concept #2 could work out. This is also my first time using a Wacom tablet, so I am slowly learning many new things that you can do in photoshop which I hadn’t known previously. Furthermore, this project has also forced me to get back into my illustrative mindset, which I haven’t tapped into in years. (I stopped drawing in like middle school or earlier)

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2025/10/16/blog-review-oct-17/

October 2025

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October 2025

MSAI: AI Applications for Astrophysics Course Graphics

Project Details

This course is about how AI applications can be used to generate astro-physics data, with students who are not expected to have a background in astronomy. Typically, classes work with pre-curated data, so this class aims to teach students to compile data themselves using AI algorithms. The professors want to keep the focus for the course graphics on astronomy, however, and have emphasized that they would ideally like the typical nodes and lines to be replaced with icons of stars, planets, and galaxies, similar to the things that you can get in Mac Keynote’s shapes. In terms of animation, perhaps some sort of cosmic explosion would work well too.

Thumbnails

Mock-ups of Design 4

Revised Design

Animated Intro

Training: Photo Scanning / Color Correction

STA Alumni Network

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STA Alumni Network Website

Client: LAITS

Task: Design a website that contains information about the STA Alumni Network.

Status: In progress

Understanding the Situation

Figuring out the core needs and goals.

Comparing what we currently have with what we need:

Before I started, there was a template website already in place with placeholder pages. I began my design process by identifying what pages to keep and what—if anything—we needed to add.

Figuring out information architecture:

After determining this, I then figured out the information architecture and user flow of the website.

Research

Gather insights that will inform the design.

I took a look at other alumni websites for a baseline/inspiration:

From there, I compiled the content that we would need to have:

Design & Prototype

Brainstorm and narrow down the visual + functional components.

I sketched out possible layouts for the different screens:

Then I made some low-fidelity prototypes:

Implement

Transfer the designs over to WordPress.

Live site: https://utw11313.utweb.utexas.edu/

The ChiLDS Lab

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The ChiLDS Lab Site Redesign

Client: Maria Arredondo, The ChiLDS Lab

Task: Complete a site redesign for The ChiLDS Lab. The client wanted to keep most of the content, but wanted a refreshed and “cuter” design overall.

Status: Complete, Project has been handed off to client

The Old Site

This was the initial site. The client wanted to move away from the standard university template and make it feel more invited and on theme with her lab. Since her target audience were parents of potential participants, researchers, and students, she wanted the website to be cute and attention grabbing, while still being professional and polished.

Logo Redesign

I started by creating a new logo. I took a lot of inspiration from other child-oriented brands and took note of both their typography and color choices.

A moodboard

Initial designs

Abstract Banner

I also created content dividers as an easy way for the client to add personalization to the website.

Possible Site Mock-Ups

Several options of implementations of the above assets.

Client Feedback

Receiving edits and revising.

The client ended up choosing the “lego block” logo design, with some minor edits. After revising to meet her requests, the logo ended up looking like this:

Low-Fidelity Mock-Ups

Lastly, I used my revised information architecture to mock-up some low fidelity prototypes of what the website could like, before handing it off to the client for implementation.

September 2025

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SEPTEMBER 2025

— Roster Poster Continued —

I continued to work on the Fall 2025 STA Roster Poster. Many many more iterations were pumped out. At this point, I was also considering having the poster be horizontal after getting the exact number of STAs for the Fall.

Keith Haring Style:

Comic Style:

A prevalent struggle I had while iterating was finding ways to make the comic style poster just as strong as the Keith Haring one. De’sha and I continued to discuss and explore ways to put them on even footing.

— Zapoteco Book Cover —

I was tasked with creating a illustrative book cover for the Zapoteco Pressbook. The client requested an illustration highlighting significant animals such as the Alcaraván bird depicted below. Due to time constraints, I had to shortcut the bird illustration by applying a filter in photoshop over the original image to give it a hand drawn effect. The left is my first draft and the right is my final.


STA Roster Poster

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This week I worked on some concepts for the title of the Spring 2026 STA Roster Poster. Im trying to go for a more “quick tag” look on the title, however I’m not so sure yet on the readability aspect of it. I will probably also try a few bubbly looking ones to see how they read: