Shirley Fizz

PRODUCT & GRAPHIC DESIGN • 2026 SCHOLASTIC HONORABLE MENTION

OVERVIEW

This design was created to be submitted to the Graphic Design category for the 2025 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. The goal was to create something unique that still had an appeal to me as a consumer of energy drinks. My submission features a can design for a prebiotic caffeinated soda, along with its own custom slogan: "Treat your body like a temple." It also included a possible advertisement for the drink as well as a page that recorded the typography and color palette of my final draft.

PROCESS

The entire work was created on Adobe Photoshop. I worked on the final product(s) across one whole week with the bulk of my work spanning across 3 days. I typically start by taking the physical sketches I create (in this case, it was on a white board) and uploading a scan of them onto my computer to trace over or build upon. Next, I began to work on a design system—although "Shirley Fizz" is not an existing brand, establishing a simple design system at the beginning of a project helps guide the entire design process. After testing many different fonts and palettes, I landed on a combination I liked and completed a can wrap design as well as a possible advertisement. In total, my submission to Scholastic had 3 finished products.

SUBMISSIONS

BRAND CAMPAIGN

Treat your body like a temple.

The slogan I created is a simple play on words. The brand name, "Shirley Fizz," doesn't include "temple" in it, which is the other half of the original drink's name ("Shirley Temples.") While the comparison of "body" to "temple" is nothing new, I thought it'd be a creative way to remind the customer of the flavor's origin as well as the brands' focus on nutritional health.

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NVHS Monologue Show

GRAPHIC DESIGN • 2026

OVERVIEW

The Neuqua Valley Monologue Show is a production that puts on original student spoken performances. Every year, the theatre teacher who runs it contacts one of the computer graphics teachers to find a student who could design the poster that year. I am extremely grateful to have been selected by my teacher, Mr. Johnson, to create the 2026 Monologue Show Poster design.

The goal of this project was to create a vertical poster design that would be printed and posted online to advertise the show in just over a week. The design would also be turned into T-shirts.

IDEATION

During my brainstorming process, I took inspiration from past Monologue Show posters as well as designs I had saved in the past that I thought were eye-catching and unique. I wanted to do create something fresh that was much different from any of the recent poster designs, so I took note of how many of the compositions were visually busy due to the presence of many different subjects and detailed backgrounds.

PROCESS

COMMUNCATION

The process began with effectively communicating with my "employer," which in this case, was the theatre and English teacher Mr. Rossi. We first met in person to brief the goal and deadline of the project, where he told me he would email me the information that had to be on the poster. Other than that, I had free reign of the design as long as it was high school appropriate. From there, I had to ensure my design was completed before the deadline (which was in just over a week) and had the correct dimensions and a sufficient resolution (so it could be printed on a large scale.)

CREATION

The entire work was created on Adobe Photoshop. The entire project took me about 3 days, with one set aside for brainstorming and the other two for creation.

To differentiate my own design from those from the past, I went with a background that was simplistic, using varying colors and patterns to add visual interest without cluttering the composition. With the color palette, I opted for a duotone design, employing a brighter version of our school's signature colors. For the star shape in the background, I used a dot density filter to add varying patterns and give it a "comic book" feel.

For the subject, I wanted to take a unique approach. To add character to my works, I will often take inspiration from traditional art and mix it with digital design. In this piece, I hand drew the megaphone and placed the lineart layer on top of a plain white background, roughly cutting it out with the geometric lasso tool. This presents the idea that the subject was drawn then "cut out" from a physical piece of paper, creating that mixed media effect.

DELIVERABLES

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Hope For Hospitals Website

WEB DESIGN • 2026

OVERVIEW

Founded in 2025, Hope For Hospitals is a 501(c)3 youth-led nonprofit organization, originating in Naperville, IL. They host community events to ensure that hospitals and clinics in areas with high poverty rates get the medical funding and supplies they need in order to provide adequate and equal healthcare for all.The goal of this project was to build a functional website that matched the brand of the nonprofit.

PROCESS

INITIALIZATION

This project was one of self advocacy. The nonprofits founder, Anika Kusumba, is a school friend of mine, and I had heard about the founding of Hope For Hospitals through social media. I approached her, proposing the idea of creating a website for her nonprofit, using my past role as the web designer for NextGenTech to support my argument.

COMMUNCATION

The process began with Anika and the other board members sending me the information they wanted in the site via email. The creation involved a lot of back in forth to refine it into something that satisfied the entire board. At some points in the project, our communication shifted from digital to physical: I had two in person check-ins to update them on that status of the site and one final meeting to purchase and connect the website domain. During our last meeting, I had to explain the process of buying then connecting the domain to the site to Anika and her team, as well as Anika's father, who was funding the purchase.

CREATION

The entire work was created on Carrd. The site's development spanned over a couple of months, from February 2026 to July 2026.My focus with this site was functionality and creating a cohesive theme. Unlike my project with NextGenTech, Hope For Hospitals had an established brand with the presence of their logo. However, this was the only thing that they had created, so I developed my own color palette (based on the logo) and typography to guide the sites' creation. Taking inspiration from the logo, I utilized blue gradients for the majority of the interface, with touches of red to make certain things pop.

OUTCOME

Something signifigant about this project was ensuring that the Hope For Hospitals team could continue to update the site without going through me. Because this site was a portfolio piece and not a paid commission, I decided the best thing to do once it was complete was to step back and hand over ownership. A couple things went into this goal: first, I made sure they were the ones who own the domain. The purchase for this happened on our final in-person meeting, as mentioned above. Second, I wanted to make updating the site as easy as possible. On their events page, each event has its own "box" that displays images, paired with text that describes the event itself. These boxes are containers, a feature of Carrd, which makes it extremely easy to simply copy and paste the container and fill out the information with something new. The same thing is also present on their accomplishments page.

DELIVERABLES

• Visit The Site

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Batter For Better

BRAND IDENTITY & GRAPHIC DESIGN • 2026

OVERVIEW

Batter For Better is a small, student-run cookie business that bakes homemade treats and delivers them to people. All their profits go to Loaves and Fishes, and they drop new flavors each week, similar to Crumbl Cookie.The goal of this project was to develop a new brand identity as well as a couple social media posts to guide future advertisements.

IDEATION

When I started this project, I basically had no constraints on what I could do. The previous logo and posts had a general pink color palette, so I kept that warm pink as the main color while testing out secondary hues like yellows and reds. Overall, I wanted to achieve something organic and friendly because of the brand's message. For the logo text, I landed on the font Providence Pro. It's a handwritten look that's still easy to read, and pairs well with the hand drawn cookie logo I created. The logo itself has a heart shaped chocolate chip, implying the brand's values of giving back.

PROCESS

This project was created on Adobe Photoshop. Its development spanned over a month, from May to June of 2026.My focus for this project was to create recognizable designs that matched the theme of the brand. I started with the logo: I tested out a variety of fonts, seen above in the ideation stage. Once my idea for the logo was complete, I moved on to creating a deliverable. While I was initially thinking of having the text stroke be a darker red, I ended up selecting brown to be the secondary color for most of my designs. For the cookie, I hand drew it using a pencil-like brush in Photoshop to ensure it matched my selected font.After the logo was complete, I worked on a Instagram post concept. Because most of the customers were other students, I went with a sheet of lined paper for the background. The post required information about the price, so I placed the text within an oval shape: I felt that it not only made the composition more interesting but also looking like a price sticker, implying someone had stuck it to the sheet.

DELIVERABLES

↓ DESIGN SYSTEM & LOGO MOCKUPS

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Personal Brand & Website

BRAND IDENTITY & WEB DESIGN • 2026

OVERVIEW

The objective of this project was to create a memorable and unique personal brand. This includes a website (what you're viewing now), logo, and design system. I also created a headshot icon to personalize my brand for viewers who may not know what I look like.

PROCESS

This project was created on Adobe Photoshop. Its development spanned over a month, from May to June of 2026.My focus for this project was to create recognizable designs that matched the theme of the brand. I started with the logo: I tested out a variety of fonts, seen above in the ideation stage. Once my idea for the logo was complete, I moved on to creating a deliverable. While I was initially thinking of having the text stroke be a darker red, I ended up selecting brown to be the secondary color for most of my designs. For the cookie, I hand drew it using a pencil-like brush in Photoshop to ensure it matched my selected font.After the logo was complete, I worked on a Instagram post concept. Because most of the customers were other students, I went with a sheet of lined paper for the background. The post required information about the price, so I placed the text within an oval shape: I felt that it not only made the composition more interesting but also looking like a price sticker, implying someone had stuck it to the sheet.

DELIVERABLES

↓ DESIGN SYSTEM & LOGO MOCKUPS

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