Sara Shields is an Instructor at Texas State University in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She teaches web design and publishing courses for undergraduate students. Besides her teaching position, Shields also freelances in web design and video production including her new graduation video announcements named Ennoucements. She was recently the Artist Design and Branding intern at C3 Presents.
Sara will be presenting her panel, How Technology Has Impacted Graphic Design alongside Paul Trani, Senior Worldwide Creative Cloud Evangelist for Adobe.
Could you tell me a little about yourself, some of the work you do as an Instructor and how you got started?
“I received my undergraduate degree in public relations at Texas State University and loved the program so much that I applied to get my master’s degree in digital media and stay in the school of journalism and mass communication. My first year of graduate school I was a graduate instructional assistant teaching the labs for fundamentals of digital and online media. The next year I was promoted to Instructor of Record and started teaching multiple sections of the web design and publishing course. This has been an exciting adventure teaching these classes because I continue to learn more and more about web design through teaching it every day to my students.”
What is the focus of your panel?
“The focus of this panel is on graphic design and how technology has impacted it. The emergence of new technology has given designers a better opportunity to create higher quality work, new concepts and techniques and collaborate with other designers. Paul and I will explain how designers can leverage new technologies to help create better designs”
What made you want to speak at SXSW?
“Last year as part of the SXTXState team, I attended the conference for my first time ever, and it was an incredible experience. I connected with so many people and now have friends from all around the globe. During the process of interviewing panelists at SXSW, I made a friend with a speaker who had a panel on graphic design. A few months after SXSW, I asked if he would want to be on a panel with me and now here we are! It’s incredible the connections you make at SXSW.”
What are you hoping will be the biggest takeaway for the audience attending your panel?
“I’m hoping that the audience will be able to broaden their horizons on all the technology out there that is accessible for designers to help effectively create quality and innovative work. By the end of the panel, the audience should be able to find ways to leverage technology to their advantage and discover all the new design tools that are available.”
When and Where:
Monday, March 13
9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Hilton Austin Downtown – Austin Chamber of Commerce / 500 E. 4th St
Find out more: How Technology Has Impacted Graphic Design