Diplomacy Lab Project - Creative Digital Media Problem Solving, Fall 2025
Diplomacy Lab Project - Creative Digital Media Problem Solving The goal was to work in groups and create a series of various graphics and social media materials in collaboration with the Office of American Spaces in researching and providing design options for the America 250 Hero project.
We were tasked with choosing a hero, doing extensive history on their background, tribulations, and impact, and then choose a style to create our works in. My group selected Muhammad Ali.
We needed to create a Vertical, Horizontal, and Square composition if we chose to make digital illustrations, which I did.
My initial thumbnail/mock-up composition for my horizontal illustration.
The first pass of the horizontal piece. We first went with a style somewhat reminiscent of stained-glass mosaics., but we ultimately went in a different direction instead
The second pass for the horizontal piece. (Initially revised by my groupmate, Alejandro Leal.)
My Initial Square composition. I was generally displeased with this one and scrapped it.
My initial pass for the vertical piece. We settled on a comic book style for our pieces, with bright colors and simple, graphic visuals. We chose Red, White, and Blue since they were the colors of the American flag.
Designing Distance: "Make Memories" Campaign - Communication Design and Visual Persuasion, Fall 2025
Designing Distance: "Make Memories" Campaign – Communication Design and Visual Persuasion The goal was to create a collaborative marketing campaign based on questions asked by students from Nelson Mandela University. We received this opportunity thanks to a partnership with Sister Cities.
For this project, we worked in groups and chose the medium we would be primarily working in. I selected digital illustration.
I elected to lean heavily into a more fun and cutesy style, depicting my characters Ipsie and Dunken on a little adventure, taking photos and experiencing the many sights to behold around Jacksonville. (Photos provided by my groupmates, Connor Daly and Christian Ugalde)
Mini Portfolio Project – Communication Design and Visual Persuasion The goal was to create an additional work to go along with the pieces we made for the initial campaign. I chose to make another digital illustration; this time I made a comic depicting the “origin” of the Make Memories campaign.
The final campaign logo (Revised by Christian Ugalde.)
My very first idea brainstorm for the project. Here I listed the branding constructs we would be leaning most towards. At first I thought to design new little characters to follow around, a Jaguar and an Alligator. Then, I had an idea. I thought that it would be a fun idea to reuse Ipsie and Dunken from my Confidence project in Fall 2025 semester. Once committed, I tweak their designs slightly and altered their color pallets to colors representing Jacksonville. I more specifically took color ideas from the Emerald Trail and Jacksonville Jaguars.
My First inital thumbnail sketch for the photo compositions. Drawn before I committed to the idea of using Ipsie and Dunken for the campaign.
My initial thumbnail sketch for the sketchbook composition idea. This is where my group decided on a scrapbooking aesthetic and the name of our campaign, “Make Memories”.
My initial thumbnail sketches for Ipsie and Dunken's poses.
More sketches, I got my more solid ideas here.
Some more Ipsie and Dunken sketches.
The initial "Make Memories" campaign logo. I used a copyright free photograph of Downtown Jacksonville's iconic cityscape and applied a few filters to make it look more painterly. I also hand drew the polaroid frame.
Initial version of Ipsie's piece. I replaced the hand-written elements with an actual font., save for Ipsie's signature. I also adjusted the opacity of her sunglasses.
Initial version of Dunken's piece. I replaced the hand-written elements with an actual font, save for Dunken's signature.
Initial version of the scrapbook piece. I replaced some of the hand-written elements with an actual font.
Sketches for the mini portfolio piece.
Partially unused doodle of Ipsie and Dunken.
Another partially unused doodle. My groupmates ended up incorporating them into their own works for the project.
Confidence Project – Portfolio Development, Spring 2025
Confidence Project – Portfolio Development The goal was to create a work based around Impostor Syndrome and the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I chose to design two characters and compose artwork with them as the focal points.
My initial thumbnail sketches for my characters "Ipsie" and "Dunken"
I decided to proceed with the "Critter" concepts.
Ipsie's final sketch
Dunken's final sketch
Digitalizing Ispie
Digitalizing Dunken
Ipsie's final concept
Dunken's final concept
After drawing the designs, I made Ipsie and Dunken into pipecleaner dolls
I took some photos with Ipsie and Dunken's dolls to get an idea how I wanted to compose my final pieces
I used this photo as inspiration for Ipsie's final composition
behind the scenes
I used these photos to capture their personalities as well
The idea of Dunken failing at camping was my first idea for his composition, but I wasn't as in love with the idea as I went to compose the scene
more behind the scenes
A classmate suggested I draw Dunken instead failing at baking. the idea was so funny that I HAD to draw it
Ipsie's final composition
