A logo for the LA Vitamin Report, a health-based, nonprofit reporting project in Los Angeles that teamed with Spot.Us.

A new logo designed for the Cal Poly Inter Housing Council.

In Fall 2009, Cal Poly held it’s first Fall Launch for freshmen in University Housing, which occurred the week before the Week of Welcome. It was a chance for students to get to know others in their dorms and the new event needed an original branding concept for its big kickoff.

This was the winning logo of choice among housing administrators becuase it is clean and professional, but still appealing to students. The little arc shapes on top are meant to represent the hills at Cal Poly where all the dorms and on-campus apartments are located, but it also implies a feeling of moving foward, which was the intention of Fall Launch.

Promotional materials using the logo:

A 39-page handbook for incoming staff members. The booklet was designed in InDesign.

This video was created for my job as a graphic designer at University Housing at Cal Poly. The video was shown to incoming freshmen during their summer orientation as an introduction to life on campus.

Students at the 2009 Associated Collegiate Press Conference in San Diego, Calif. discuss ideas on modernizing journalism education in the 21st century. This video was produced as part of my internship at the Center for Innovation in College Media.

A rising trend among universities nationwide is a push for online portfolios, also known as e-folios or e-portfolios – and Cal Poly may begin exploring the concept on a university-wide scale.

The university sent a team to a statewide CSU meeting Wednesday at the San Francisco State University Downtown Center to specifically discuss how students and faculty can use e-portfolios. Continue Reading →

Two words my reaction to the video above: shock and hopefulness.

This summer, middle school students from the Porterville Unified School District are learning about journalism at my high school, Granite Hills. And when I say “journalism” I don’t mean it in the traditional sense. They’re learning digital journalism with a cirriculum I have yet to see on a college level:

• Reporting: Interviewing, writing leads, taking notes, editing
• Multimedia: Video production (using Final Cut Pro!), audio editing, photo editing
• Beyond basics: Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D graphics, animated graphics, HTML
• Understanding news: reading the New York Times to understand news article structure and get a grasp for world events

All the mini-sessions are being taught by fresh high school graduates — the very kids who were little high school freshmen when I was editor in chief (including my little brother, the one teaching the HTML session).

My initial reaction was to compare skills being learned by these 12-year-olds to those skills of college reporters I work with. The 12-year-olds win. The video above, although not perfect, is more well-produced than what most Mustang Daily reporters achieve by the end of a quarter on staff. And the fact that recent high school grads can teach skills that colleges are struggling to teach only further mesmerizes me.

And think about it– these are just kids! Listen to the voice of the young girl who narrates the video. She sounds like she should be narrating Sesame Street. She still has six years until she graduates high school, ten years until she graduates college. If kids are learning these skills right now, imagine what they’ll be able to do with it by the time they get to the professional industry.

Back when I went there (2003-2007), I helped get the program on its feet, and I’m so proud to see where it’s come since then.

As I tweeted earlier, I am absolutely blown away. And, also, a little terrified. At this rate, these kids will put me out of a job.

Local gay marriage advocates gathered at Mitchell Park on May 26, 2009 to oppose the California Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold Proposition 8, the proposition passed last November that banned same-sex marriage.

About 250 community members congregated for an event organized by the San Luis Obispo chapter of Marriage Equality USA. The 6-1 ruling determined that the 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before the vote remain valid.

After the passage of Porposition 8, several same-sex couples took the vote results to the courts, stating that the ballot measure was unconstitutional under state law.

My design campaign boosted resident and community advisor applications by 200 percent in 2009 at Cal Poly from prior years. These postcards followed the same general branding scheme as a series of large posters and multimedia presentations sent out to residents.