KSDT Radio
ROLE
Design Intern
TIMELINE
4 months
(Feb - Jun 2023)
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Procreate
Promoting UC San Diego’s fiercely independent student-run radio station through a more playful and energetic branding.
Overview
01
about
UC San Diego’s very own student-run online radio station
KSDT is a fiercely independent student-run online radio station at UC San Diego that believes in sharing diverse tastes in music and unique perspectives. They strive to promote independent music not available from other sources and work to help the San Diego Community.
role
Redefining styles and expanding the arts scene
As a design intern, I worked alongside a team of other interns to create graphics for upcoming events, design merchandise, and expand the arts scene at KSDT. I also collaborated with a few design interns, the web development team, and the design director to redesign the station’s website and define our style moving forward.
Design
02
KSDT Stickers
Promoting the station with fun and energetic stickers
What better way to promote the station than rolling out stickers that can be handed out and pasted anywhere around campus? I designed a couple of stickers for the station, playing around with brand colors and a mix of round and sharp shapes for the friendly vs fierce vibes.
I created a total of 5 designs using KSDT colors, with four being wordmark variants and the last being an old school radio.
spring 2023 zine
Contributing to the quarterly zine
To engage the community and encourage creative pursuits, the design team also organizes art calls for KSDT’s quarterly zine. For the Spring 2023 issue, I designed a 2-page spread and contributed with an illustration.
The illustration and 2-page spread I created for the Spring 2023 issue.
website refresh
Redesigning KSDT’s website to reflect new branding and improve usability
I branched out to the web development team with some design interns to redesign KSDT’s website, whose design hadn’t been updated for 5 years, had become clunky to use, and was no longer representative of KSDT’s brand. I tackled the contact, blog, and template article pages, ensuring that they reflected the new branding and were easy to implement by regularly communicating with the department directors.
The pages I designed, not including the home page. Compared to the old website, the redesign features energetic colors and organizes content more efficiently on the screen to allow users to view and access more.
Reflections
03
what i learned
Many hands make light work
Working as a design intern for the first time — and with a wonderful team at KSDT nonetheless — has taught me how to collaborate with a large interdisciplinary team, demonstrate a design’s implementability to developers, and manage multiple projects under a tight deadline. I came to appreciate just how true the saying “many hands make light work” was and felt immensely proud after seeing my work printed and the KSDT website updated and running.
I’m very grateful for the countless opportunities to practice my design skills and share the joy of creating alongside others for others. I can’t wait to see how the KSDT community will grow!
