Merchandise Design
Internship | Fall '24 - Present | Case Studies Across My Internship
Penn State's Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CSGD) celebrates and supports Penn State students of all sexual and gender identities. We provide resources, education, and community-building opportunities that foster belonging, empowerment, and pride.
Tools I Used:
My Role:
As a student marketer since 2024, I have been tasked to lead several merchandise campaigns, in the form of brand identity and deployment as physical products. From stickers to shirts, I have had the pleasure of developing a variety of tangible products for people to enjoy!
Trans Day of Visibility
In 2025, I was given the privilege of helping run and design the brand for the CSGD's first Trans Day of Visibility Celebration. This required the creation of a logo, unique stickers, networking for a donor drive, and the creation of a unique marketing centerpiece. I chose to create a hand-drawn aesthetic and curate a very specific style of sticker and graphic. Alongside this, I designed a community art wall. I hand painted the three-panel wall, inviting local organizations to participate in our clothing drive and then signing the wall. The work I created for this event can be seen more here, and the impact it had can be read about here!
The Queer Peers programming is a series of transitional events and structured orientations for new or change-of-campus students at Penn State. This year, the theme was deep sea exploration. I had the pleasure of developing, drawing, and creating the character of Travis the Shark, a friendly mascot that represented the transitional celebratory marketing. Travis can be seen as a sticker, plush, and on various graphics I created. Read and see more of the assets here.
The CSGD observes International Pronoun Day every year. In 2024, I was tasked with the annual refresh and rebrand of the day. This required creating a core graphic and phrase that would encapsulate the purpose of the day. I focused on creating something that celebrated both diversity and community, something that all people could be seen by. I started with a moodboard, as seen on the left, and then came up with the core phrase and began to sketch the graphic out. I vectorized the final graphic and then moved on to merchandising, choosing sticker formats and tshirt designs. Here you can read about the individual assets and the news report on this project!
