I am back for the spring semester and ready for anything this semester throws at me! Excited to be back at work and keep collaborating alongside everyone this semester.

A quick run through my winter break. This break was a much needed break for me and has allowed me to take a step back. I was able to relax while also take a look at my future with this semester being my last one. Though very daunting at first, I got some perspective. I stayed home during the break with my dad and brother, my mom came back from Peru towards the end 0f the break. My break consisted of going to local places in my hometown and got to do things like rock climbing, going to the arcade, and ice skating. It was nice getting to see friends from high school again and catch up. During a couple of our hang outs, we got to do some fun activities like making presentations of our semester recap! Yeah I know at first it sounds like homework, but it was fun explaining our presentation in detail. Another thing we did were vision boards! We all met once and spent the entire day printing and designing our vision boards! Overall it was a good break to catch up on sleep and relax for awhile.

 

This week, I had two project assigned to me, both were course packet styles for MUS 307 and E316L

Course Graphic Design: MUS 307

Start: January 16, 2024

Completed by: January 30, 2024

Staff Guidance: De’sha & Jennifer

Client: Dr. Charles Carson

Description: The client requested a new course graphic set for MUS 307 – How Music Works: Popular Music in Popular Culture with Style B assets. They asked for two options to show the professor in order gauge the direction the professor would like to go with. The course centered around popular music in popular culture with the professor mentioning popular artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, and possibly using color palette in reference to them. They requested for PPT slides (Course Title slide, Lecture Segment slide, and Additional PPT slide), and Canvas Graphics (Dashboard, Homepage Banner, and Buttons).

 

I first started by searching for images that dealt with popular music in Pexel, Unsplash, and Pixabay and created some Canvas dashboard sets to get some feedback on what design the client would like to go with:

 

Images –

Canvas Dashboard –

After receiving feedback that the client wanted the maroon color iteration, I then created the canvas graphics and PPT slides.

After a studio test, the PPT background slides needed to be more transparent so I lowered the opacity.

 

Course Graphic Design: E316L

Start: January 17, 2024

Completed by: February 19, 2024

Staff Guidance: De’sha & Andrea

Client: Professor Elizabeth Hedrick

Description: The client requested for a Style A course packet for the summer course Intro to British Literature, including PPT slides (iPad Overlay), Canvas Graphics (Dashboard, Homepage Banner, and Buttons), and Studio Assets (UT generic/ UT Seal). In the notes, they had requested it to be in teal color  with no headshots as other professors would be using them as well.

 

I followed the Style A course graphics guidelines and changed some design aspects as needed. I created the assets in a teal color, removed the headshot image spacing, and rearranged the space.

Afterward, the client expressed that they wanted a set of powerpoint templates for the class as well, so I created them.

It feels good to be back! My break was pretty relaxing and I mainly focused on spending time with family so now I feel good to jump back into projects I wasn’t able to get to in time.

Pre-course LAITS Video

After finishing the course graphics for the 301 Astronomy class, a new project was given to me that is largely animation based. LAITS has a studio that allows professors to stream online classes and a special feature of it is that students can even attend the live studio to see the professor in person (kind of like a live audience). My assignment was to make a video that airs before the class to inform students on things to be weary of during a live class and general etiquette for the studio.

I first started with designing storyboards for an animatic.

Next, once I was given the rough audio, I was able to make an animatic.

Once the animatic was approved, I was able to move on to designing the assets. This assignment has given me a lot of creative freedom as I was allowed to design the infographics for the video myself. I’m getting pretty comfortable with Adobe Illustrator.

This process was definitely what took the longest as I wanted to ensure that the assets not only looked nice, but also that the Illustrator file was properly formatted to be imported into After Effects for animation.

I have all the assets finished and am currently working on the animation. I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out!

Spring Summer Marketing

Speedway Banner: My first task for this semester was to continue developing the Speedway banner design. My supervisor wanted to see more iterations before our next Summer Marketing meeting. I was also updated that we will be able to print multiple colors on the banner.

 

 

Although the colorful lines are a significant motif to the Summer Marketing campaign, they became a distraction from the text elements on the banner. I decided it was probably best to limit the banner to as few colors as possible (burnt orange and white). My supervisor suggested a design where the title text is enlarged, and the URL is moved to the right side with the “select $500 courses” since the left was very text heavy, resulting in unused white space on the right.

We decided the diagonal lines create a visually interesting pattern that may draw student’s eyes to the banner. The spacing between the lines and text was a bit crowded, so I reduced the font size and amount of diagonal lines.

Animated intros and segments!

With the flyers for the astronomy class done, I can now get started on the requested animations for the class. This task seemed really daunting at first since I thought I would have to think of and animate at least 2 different after effects animation, but with the help from my supervisor, I was provided with a suggested After Effects template to use to help my workflow.

Here’s the template I used for the animated intro for the class.

I’m mainly glad that the template was easy to figure out and I was able to add in my own images and text. Plus I think it’s a really fitting style.

I already got the animated stingers done which was also just a template I could export from, so my main task was to make custom animated segments for the class that were specific to the class.

I found another template for this and paired it with some free-to-use stock footage. Here’s how it looks so far.

I’m having a lot of fun with these templates! They save me a lot of time and can easily be adjusted to fit the class.

week seventeen
AUGUST 8th - AUGUST 11th

     this week,  i :

• • • met with a WordPress client to discuss their website's functionality

    • migrated the UT Austin websites using WordPress and Pantheon

    • did web maintenance using MainWP

    • completed CSS training by restyling the AHAA site

     impediments :

• • • issue with connectivity and file sharing when
      viewing html file locally on a mobile device

       

      Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study  ( AHAA )
      Website in Desktop Dimension

       

      

      
      AHAA Website Menu Functionality in Collapsed Desktop Dimension

       

      

      
      AHAA Website in Mobile-Responsive Dimension
      
      

      
      AHAA Website Menu Functionality in Mobile-Responsive Dimension

       

      

More Astronomy Flyers!

This week has been a lot of fun as I’ve been given more advice on how to play around with flyer design and tips on how to make the flyers more visually coherent.

I was given a flyer template to take inspiration from and was also advised to find new images so that the images used for the course graphics and flyer didn’t become repetitive.

Here’s some of the new designs I made

It definitely shows a stark difference from my first designs. I’m personally a big fan of the last design and the designs with the cliff image.

Here’s the newest iteration we were able to make. With the help from my supervisor, we were able to combine favorable aspects of both our flyers to make something really visually appealing.