Lauren Rabaino

About

Lauren Michell Rabaino

In a nutshell: graphic designer, blogger, tea/coffee lover, new media enthusiast, recreational golfer, Google addict and news junkie. At the heart of it all: journalism.

I am a California girl at heart– born and raised in Porterville, Calif., went to college in San Luis Obispo, Calif. and am now located in Los Angeles.

I’m a self-proclaimed coffee addict, have been using Photoshop since I was 13 and built my first website for my fifth grade science fair project. To call me a geek would do it no justice.

A little background

I grew up in a small, conservative town in the San Joaquin Valley of California called Porterville. I practically lived my entire life in the same home, went to school from kindergarten to high school gradation with the same group of kids, and had the same third grade teacher as my mother had when she was in third grade.

My father, Benito Rabaino, grew up in the Philippines and didn’t come to the United States until he was 20. My mother was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley. I don’t know much about my family history beyond that.

How I got started in journalism

I’ve always loved writing. It’s been my strength since I was very young. Yet, as a child, I had the same nonsensical ambition as every child to someday be a doctor. After my first biology class in high school, I quickly learned that wasn’t the field for me. But it was that year that I was introduced to my high school newspaper — which, in fact, was not a newspaper, but a white web page with blue hyperlinks to articles. It was nothing fancy, but it was all we had. I immediately had the desire to redesign it and secretly built Photoshop mockups of how I wanted the site to look while I waited to take over.

My sophomore year of high school, I ousted juniors and seniors for the role of assistant manager, then quickly took over the editor in chief position after I learned Dreamweaver. Under my lead, the student newspaper at my Title I (read: poor) high school placed as a Pacemaker Finalist in the NSPA’s online national online journalism contest. I was hooked, both on reporting and web design.

I had no idea back then that I was lightyears ahead of the industry I was about to commit my life to.

College and beyond

As a December 2009 Cal Poly journalism graduate, I can now be found in Los Angeles as a product designer at Publish2.
Before I graduated, I was on staff for the Mustang Daily every year of college, with my last position as the online and multimedia editor. In May 2009, I started as the Creative Director at CoPress, a student organization dedicated to helping college media achieve technical sustainability.  In 2008, I was the first intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media.