STA Blog

Current Sta

Summer 2026

By

My Break

This summer I was able to go to Spain through a program called Absolute Internships. For 6 weeks, I studied at an self publishing editorial firm called Yerro Books. I worked on a few different projects including filming and editing a portfolio showcase, designing a book cover for a client, and researching methods to ethically work with AI in book cover designs. Communicating with my supervisor at times was challenging because of the language barrier, but through translator apps and visuals, we were able to stay on the same page. Something I learned outside of my workplace was how prominent design conventions and methods are used across the world. I thought there would be a greater difference in visual communication due to differences in culture, societal norms, politics, etc., but I noticed that graphic design in spain followed conventions used in the US.

Projects + Images

My supervisor Ester Carrasco
Thought Piece created for DES 260I
Book cover created for a client
Working with AI to generate book cover ideas

Summer 2026

By

Summer 2026

This summer, I got the opportunity to intern at Epic Systems as a UX Design intern! While I wouldn’t recommend living in Wisconsin, I had a great experience with the UX team there and learned a bunch of cool new things (totally an expert in genomics now). It was really interesting to see how design played a role in the company and compare it to how I’ve been approaching it in school/orgs!

Campus was crazy!
Barn (one of the office buildings)
Final showcase
Flyer I made

8/24-8/28

By

✿˖° ⋆ KB Home Page (8/28) ⋆˚✿˖°

────────────────────⊹ ࣪ ˖♡˖ ࣪ ⊹ ────────────────────

.

.

My first week back I revisited my past home/landing page redesigns and finalized my hi-fi frames especially with the page’s layout and content! It was fun to apply my internship experience when it came to researching and ideating as well. I’m looking forward to getting these designs implemented soon!

.

✿˖° ⋆ French Textbook (8/28) ⋆˚✿˖°

────────────────────⊹ ࣪ ˖♡˖ ࣪ ⊹ ────────────────────

.

.

I was onboarded on a new project called “Planning & Organization – French Textbook” where I get to gain more project managment experience and leading a project! My first task was to create our Replacement Image Sourcing Spreadsheet which is where we would document alternative images to replaces the images we have on file now!

Week 1 – Isa

By

🫐 First week back! 🫐

Transitioning Back

Summer break was really fun! I spent a majority with my family, it was super nice to be able to spend time with them. We watched the World Cup together, it was really memorable this year.

Now that I’m back, I’ve been getting used to walking around on campus again and working out my schedule with my job. As everyone is settling into their classes and deciding whether to add/drop, my work as a Design STA has been very manageable!

All week I have been working on the STA cutouts. All it involves in cutting out the background of each photo of the STAs’ and cleaning it up. Photoshop has been the platform I’ve used for it and it’s very simple work!

Usually the flow for me in doing this project is:

  • Identify the student I’m going to mask the background of
  • Open one file in Photoshop
  • Drag the rest of the files of that same student into the same Photoshop file
  • Use the object selection tool to select the subject
  • Apply a layer mask
  • Clean up anything the selection tool missed
  • Repeat until all photos are properly masked
  • Export all layers into separate PNGs
  • Place the files into the right folder

It’s pretty simple once you finish the first STA! It’s a lot of files, but I do have ample time to get it done. Getting back into properly naming files is a good habit I need to keep building, too.

Overall, my first week back has been really good!

Summer 2026

By

✿˖° ⋆ Summer 2026 ⋆˚✿˖°

────────────────────⊹ ࣪ ˖♡˖ ࣪ ⊹ ────────────────────

.

Making my hologram!!!
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Exploring NYC ⋆⭒˚.⋆
Edit of a 3-D model I created (click me!!!)

.

This summer I had the opportunity to work as an UX/UI design and creative direction intern for a fashion tech startup, frontend development intern for a marketplace startup, and a design intern at a hologram studio in NYC!

I truly got so much work and real-life experiences working on my projects and got to step out of my comfort zone and learn more about different design and tech fields!

First Week of the Fall Semester

By

My first week of the 2026 fall semester has been a blast. I started off the week by attending one of my shifts here and continued work on the voting PSAs. We are just about finished with them right now, but I will go more into detail regarding the videos later on in this blog post.

I’m taking 4 classes this semester and I’m very excited to learn a lot of new material and skills. I will be taking 3D modeling and texturing, games and interactivity, solo studio, and 2D animation for games. I hope to take what I learn in these classes and translate them into my work as an STA.

This week was filled with making the final edits to the voting PSAs. There are a total of 8 videos, all with varying audios and slight variations to animations. Being able to reuse animations and assets has helped reduce the work load immensely, allowing me to complete tasks much more efficiently.

Register to Vote

Election Day

Early Voting

It’s far too early to start advertising these PSAs, however I’m happy to have them near finished. If there are any changes or edits needed, they will be simple and quick to adjust.