STA Work Blog

STAs: Student Technology Assistants

Who We Are
LAITS: IT and Facilities Director, Joe TenBarge initiated the Student Technology Assistant program in 2004. STAs are UT students who work on a variety of projects in collaboration with UT faculty and LAITS staff members. STAs assist College of Liberal Arts faculty members and administrative staff with print and web design. From building presentations, to creating audio/visual works, and producing online classes in the LAITS film studios, STAs are instrumental in helping COLA faculty realize their vision for multimedia projects that enhance their teaching and the students learning experience. By the end of their student careers, STAs have portfolios which demonstrate their accrued technical and design skills.

Prospective STAs:

Creative and technically inclined students are appointed as STAs for one year, with the possibility of being rehired as long as they study at the university. Applicants for the program are hired before both long semesters. Interested students may look for postings on Hire-A-Longhorn when positions are available. Positions will have Student Technology Assistant (illustrator or web designer) in the title of the job post.

Faculty and Staff:

Faculty & Staff with questions about services, please contact us.

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/laits/contacts.php

Audio Services: Michael C Heidenreich, Director of Studio Operations & STA Program Coordinator
Video Services: Kelly Webster, Video Production Supervisor, Video STA Supervisor
Graphic Design & Web Design Services: Suloni Robertson, Art Director / Design & Coding STA Supervisor

New Year, New… Projects?

February 1, 2019 By Chloe Kim

Happy 2019! I’m very thankful to be back at LAITS working as a Design STA for almost 2 years now. Since then, I think I made a lot of progress as a designer and grew a lot just as a person. I’m very excited to work on various projects this semester !!

So far, I have been mainly working on the Russian Online Class promotional poster since I got back from winter break. I started off with different drafts for the 8.5 x 11 poster:

*Version with decorative borders taken from the RUS ppt slides.*

*Dr. Rice and Mike have suggested a wooden background with the Russian flag colors incorporated.*

*Suloni and I thought the light blue would go well with the image bubbles, especially the bottom one.*

*My personal favorite… the classic UT colors.*

*More decorative borders! But too busy to the eyes…*

Ultimately, this is the design that I came up with after consulting with Suloni and Tate, as well as getting Dr. Rice and Mike’s approval:

So after the 8.5 x 11 poster, Tate has asked me to make a similar version for the 11 x 17 poster. This is the original one I made:

Tate has suggested a few edits I could make, such as:

-Move “Learn Russian” and “Summer 2019 – Online” higher on the poster. Make them all caps and the same size (Roughly the size of “Learn Russian” right now, maybe just a hair smaller)

-Separate the images and the other text more. I recommend moving the large bottom image (with all of the Illustration characters in it) to the left. I also recommend making the CREES logo more of a part of the group of the other two circle images, and move all of those up to the top right.

-Play around with the sizing and color of the text for varied emphasis. Use the reference image we talked about as a guide.

-Also, something I didn’t mention; try to get the text to bend around the circle images a little more! It’s something that happened in your 8.5×11 mockup (either on purpose or not) and balances the poster well!

So I made 2 different versions (still not final) – I personally like the blue version better than the orange one, because it encompasses the poster as a whole without overpowering the other colors.

Other than that, I’ve been working on miscellanious things, like photo ID’s, coming up with STA meeting times, Cascade, and talking to Mike about updating the LAITS graphic design website page!