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Designing Your Outfit Like a Brand: What Fashion Can Learn from Visual Design

When we think about visual design, we usually picture websites, logos, or apps – not the outfit we throw on before leaving the house. But the more I’ve learned about design processes, the more I’ve realized something kind of funny: getting dressed is basically the same thing as building a brand. Think about it. Every…
Using Social Media As A Tool For Justice

When we think about social media today, it’s easy to associate it with trends, influencers, or even spreading misinformation. But during major global and political movements, social media has proven it can be a very powerful tool. It can inform, connect, and sometimes even challenge systems of power. One huge example is the Arab Spring.…
Award Show Fashion: How Celebrities Are Making Political Movements During Award Show Season

As someone interested in fashion, besides musical performances I usually only watch award shows for the red carpet. But recently, I’ve noticed something different. It’s not just about the dress or the designer anymore, but the message. Many celebrities are using award shows, usually the bigger ones, to send out political messages to the public.…
Hierarchy in Layout – And Why It’s So Important

Have you ever glanced at a poster and instantly known where to look first? That’s not an accident – it’s the image’s layout hierarchy. In design, hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that guides the viewer’s eye, making information easy to process and visually engaging. Whether you’re creating an event flyer,…
Why You Can’t Stop Scrolling (Is It A Good Thing?)

Be honest – how many times have you opened TikTok “for five minutes” and looked up after doom scrolling for an hour? Don’t worry, it happens to us all. That feeling is called stickiness. In social media, stickiness refers to how well content keeps you coming back, staying longer, and interacting more. It’s the reason…
Microtrends vs. Timeless Style: What Should You Actually Buy?

If you’ve spent even five minutes on TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen a new “must-have” item every week. One day it’s ballet flats, the next it’s chunky headphones as accessories. Welcome to the world of microtrends – tiny, fast-moving fashion waves that rise and fall almost overnight. Microtrends are largely fueled by social media, where…
What’s Trending This Spring (And Why They’re Back)

It’s about that time where every time my mom sees my outfit, she talks about how she used to wear the same clothes when she was my age. Like history, fashion has a funny way of repeating itself, and right now, trends from the past are having a major moment again. One of the biggest…
Would Kony 2012 Work Today?

I’ve just discovered one of early social media’s first viral videos, Kony 2012, and I’ve just realized something: I can’t remember the last time a video has actually made me feel something. Watching Kony 2012 – whether for the first time or revisiting it years later – still hits in a surprisingly emotional way. The…
Influencers’ Impact on The Fashion Industry

If you’ve ever scrolled through Instagram or TikTok and suddenly felt the urge to completely reinvent your wardrobe… you’re not alone. Fashion influencers are everywhere, shaping what we wear, how we shop, and even how we see ourselves. But are they actually helping the fashion world, or making it more chaotic? Fashion influencers, at their…
Color Psychology

Have you ever walked into a room and instantly felt calm? Or clicked on a website and felt energized before reading a single word? That’s color psychology at work – the invisible force shaping how we feel before we even think about it. Color psychology is essentially the study of how colors influence perception, mood,…
Is Print Fashion Really Dying… or Are We Just Not Paying Attention Anymore?

When was the last time you picked up a fashion magazine? Not scrolled past a runway clip, or liked an outfit on Instagram. Not saved a trend on TikTok. I mean actually sat down, flipped through the pages, and spent time with it. If you’re anything like me—or honestly, like most people today—it’s probably been…
Does Posting Actually Do Anything?

You’ve probably done it before—liked a post about an issue, maybe shared it to your story, and then kept scrolling like nothing happened. Same. It kind of makes you wonder… does social media activism actually work, or are we all just participating in something that feels important but doesn’t really go anywhere? After learning more…
Getting Into Fashion: What I’ve Learned

Breaking into the fashion industry can feel intimidating, especially when it seems like everyone already has connections, experience, or a clear path forward. Two years ago, I felt the same way. I was passionate about fashion, constantly inspired by what I saw online, but unsure how to actually step into the industry. That started to…
Why Brand Identity Is More Than Just a Logo

When I first started thinking about brand identity, I’ll be honest – I thought it was mostly about logos. Colors, fonts, maybe a cool aesthetic if you’re lucky. But the more I’ve been learning, the more I’m realizing that brand identity is really about perception. It’s how people feel when they interact with something, not…
Using Social Media for GOOD!

Social media often gets a bad reputation a lot of the time – ruining attention spans, spreading misinformation, all of that good stuff. But besides all of that, we also overlook just how powerful social media can be when it’s used the right way. Social media isn’t just about doomscrolling or new trends; it’s a…
Wrapping Things Up

As a beginner editor and project-maker, my ICM508 Audio and Visual Design course helped so much in understanding editing and composition. Before I reflect, I wanted to reference a quote from Tom Schroeppel’s book The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video: “Making moving pictures is a subjective art. There are no absolute rights…
Collectible Culture 2.0: Why Gen Z Is Obsessed with Owning Little Things

Generation Z’s voracious appetite for collecting — from blind-box toys and limited-edition sneakers to photocards and vintage comics — reflects more than nostalgic hobbyism; it’s a consumer behavior shaped by deliberate design and psychological levers. This paper explores why collecting has become a distinctive cultural practice for Gen Z by bringing together frameworks from behavioral…
Creating My Own Documentary

Assigned a final project, I now get to create my own mini documentary about any topic of my choosing. With so much to choose from, I wanted to do some final research before narrowing down some topic ideas. The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video by Tom Schroeppel Chapter Seven: Lighting In this…
Continuity: Creating A Tutorial

This week, I will be going over everything I learned involving continuity editing, defined by Adobe as using “a variety of classic film editing techniques to blend multiple camera shots — some taken at different times or even different locations — into a seamless, consistent narrative” (What is continuity editing in film?). In an effort…
The Place I Love Most: A Photoessay

Every year I have the chance to visit my grandparents in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. Visiting every year, I have grown to become more and more comfortable here. While I often took these visits for granted in the past, I recently went and captured so many great memories. These images reflect some of…
Editing A Video Montage

To create a video montage, I first wanted to understand both pre and post-production to the best of my ability before starting the project. While my previous blog post covered all kinds of information regarding pre-production, this post will cover post-production: my challenges, the editing process, and my overall thoughts on creating this project. The…
How Behavioral Economics Shapes the Things We Click, Buy, and Love

Brands today have unlocked new ways of engaging newer audiences and luring them into buying products that they’ve never seen before. How do they do it? Well, besides the power of social media, the power of behavioral economics has constantly been proven to persuade customers into buying newer products! Behavioral economics studies how people actually…
Montages: What To Know!

The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, Tom Schroeppel Chapter One: Basics In the opening chapter, Schroeppel lays out the essential building blocks of filmmaking—exposure, lenses, and depth of field. He compares the camera to the human eye, showing how it can move beyond simple observation to become a tool for storytelling. I…
Designing Emotion: How Design Adds Value in the Experience Economy

In an economy where consumers increasingly pay for experiences rather than just goods or services, design has quietly become one of the most powerful value creators. Designers, now, can be seen as architects of value, not just aesthetics. Design creates value through emotional connection. Don Norman’s ideas of emotional design helps explain why: great experiences…
Production: What I’ve Learned

Every time I get into a new project, there is always something new to learn about the production process. Not every project is the same, and some may have to be done differently than others – which is okay!! I’ve done some research on recording and editing audio for my upcoming podcast, Let’s Have a…
Seeing the Future: How Design Fiction Turns Stories into Visual Worlds

Designers are constantly asked to imagine the future — sleeker products, smarter systems, faster solutions. But imagination alone isn’t enough; it needs form, context, and meaning. That’s where design fiction comes in. Design fiction blends storytelling with design practice, using narrative and visual artifacts to make speculative futures feel real enough to explore. Instead of…
A Trip to LA: How Digital Pictures Tell a Story

We all know the classic saying, “pictures are worth a thousand words”. But have you ever thought about how true the saying actually is? Taking pictures on my digital camera has become one of my favorite hobbies recently. The pictures on my camera range from beautiful scenery to pictures of my friends and family. My…
Module One: Getting Started

As a semi-beginner editor of both video and audio, I want to make sure I know everything I need to know to create my own content. In this module, lots of research was done on sound itself, and I was able to better understand how podcasts are first created! Understanding Sound The Bare Bones Camera…
From Swipe to Shelter: Using Customer Journey Maps to Improve the Adoption Process

Adopting a pet is much more than a transaction — it’s an emotional journey. What if we treated that journey with the same empathy and design thinking used in UX? A customer (or user) journey map helps us narrate someone’s path, see their motivations, frustrations, and “aha” moments. What are Journey Maps?! A journey map,…
Ideation Techniques, and How I Use Them

Ideation is a crucial part of the design thinking process, allowing designers to generate a wide range of possible solutions for user problems (Interaction Design Foundation). In this exercise, I explored ideation techniques to address six POV statements related to iMovie, CapCut, and Instagram. My approach focused on using at least two different ideation techniques…
Understanding the POVs of App Users

No one usually thinks to dive deep into popular apps’ ratings and reviews on the app store. So that’s exactly what I did 🙂 Digging into these reviews, I realized how much this user feedback can actually teach us about defining design problems. This project walked me through that process, from collecting raw comments to…
Creating Personas To Better Understand Users

When moving along the design thinking process, many designers turn to creating ‘personas’ to help better understand their potential users. Defined by the Interaction Design Foundation, “Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way,”…
Reviewing Empathic Research Methods

One thing I’ve learned in design and media is that empathy isn’t just about being “nice” or “understanding.” It’s about actually putting yourself in someone else’s shoes so you can design things that work for them—not just what you think they need. And honestly, that’s harder than it sounds. That’s why empathy research is such…
Scrolling with Feelings: What Instagram vs. Pinterest Teaches Us about UX/UI

As an avid social media user, have you ever thought about why you enjoy your favorite apps? Is it accessibility? It’s features? The visually-appealing layouts? These ideas heavily relate to User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI), with UX relating to one’s emotional experience and attitudes relating to a product or service, and UI referring…
Design Sprints: A New Experience

I just recently learned about design thinking, an innovative way of thinking about user experience. Now, when I first heard the term design sprint for an assignment, I’ll admit I felt a little intimidated. The idea of compressing brainstorming, problem-solving, and prototyping into such a short amount of time sounded like a challenge. But once…
What Even is Design Thinking?!

Once a complete stranger to the world of design thinking, I did a bit of research to familiarize myself with this new term. I am inviting you to watch this Ted Talk of Tim Brown, the godfather of design thinking. The CEO of IDEO talks about the difference between design and design thinking, and just…
“Style Files” – How I Created a Short Video Series for the First Time

In the span of seven weeks, I created my own mini video series called “Style Files”; consisting of three ten-minute videos, each covering a timeless fashion piece. Explaining their histories, how they’re typically styled, and who wore them best, this series aims to inform my viewers on how these pieces survived through history. How Did…
Writing for Social Media

How writing for interactive media can differ from platform to platform. When posting on social media, how would you describe the way you caption your posts or talk to your audiences? Is it conversation-like? Serious? This may also depend on the social media platform you use. To give examples, I drafted three posts on three…
AI: Blessing or a Curse?

Using AI to create a blog entry. How personal can it get?
Digital Media is Killing the Fashion Industry

Digital media has forever impacted how fashion magazines are viewed. How can print survive in today’s digital age?
Finishing Up A Dream Project

Creating Style Files has been nothing but a breeze. With a few work-related hiccups along the way, Style Files is officially completed! When creating this series, I was a bit nervous with going outside of my comfort zone. I mean, isn’t everyone?! I was a bit nervous to actually sit in front of my camera and actually film, even…
Ready to Launch! In 5… 4…

After such a useful and productive project management experience, I couldn’t be more ready to launch my mini series. This week, we focused on post-production! Editing has become one of my favorite things to do, so focusing on this task wasn’t difficult at all. After spending hours of researching the software Capcut, I couldn’t be more…
Putting the Pieces Together

It’s officially one of my favorite parts of a production project: finally gathering the pieces to put everything together! This week, I’ve gathered lots of materials to help my post-production process go by smoothly. Creating my scripts beforehand heavily helped with this, as I knew which images or music to grab for editing! Keeping up…
Pre-Production: Finally Setting Up Shop!

I’ve never been so excited to begin a project as much as this one. With this project, I am aiming to be as prepared and organized as I can be, something I’ve never tried before with previous projects. Through this course, I have learned that being prepared with everything beforehand can only benefit you! Any…
Project Management… Let’s Try It Again!

After figuring out my final idea last week, I’ve never been more excited for a project. The next step into this exciting idea is organizing my thoughts and tasks into one place. Although I want to hurry and begin the production of this project, project management is one of the most crucial steps in making…
“Style Files”: Creating A Video Series Proposal

Upon joining my new Content Creation class, I was assigned to think of my “Dream Project”; something I’ve been longing to create that must be created in just 140 hours (20 hours a week). When initially thinking of my idea, I began to think a bit broad. My first initial idea was creating a video…