Welcome to the 2025 showcase!
The following works were created by University of Pittsburgh students in English and Digital Narrative & Interactive Design courses, and by students creating in the Hillman Library's Open Lab. Please stay awhile, explore, and help us celebrate the wonderful work produced over the past year. These innovative digital and design projects are listed below in order of project type and technological medium, from Audio thru Web designs.
Award Winners:
Crowd Favorite Award: Aza Mohanty, for the Twine project "PRISLA Hypertext" Chosen by all attendees of the showcase, and determined first in the award lists, this award recognizes the clear crowd favorite, the project they find memorable and evocative.
Best in Show, Design: Sydney Rodriguez, for the Web project "Her Hormone Handbook"
Best in Show, Technical / Production: Kenny Feng, for the Interactive Kiosk project "Architect of Tera Nova".
The "je ne sais quoi" Award: Alex Bennett for the audio project “A Comprehensive Guide to 'Match' Making ”
Open Lab Creation Award: Benjamin Skultety for the 3D printed Settlers of Catan board game.
Honorable Mentions: Paige Branagan & Kellen Weidman for the Game project "Stag Party", Brooke Murawski for the Audio project "Love is Like a Shadow", John DAuria for the Twine project "'Funny "Games': a Theoretical Framework for Interactive Comedy”, Rory Walsh for the Interactive Kiosk project “Excerpter,” and Emmanuelle Brent for the Web project "Steel City Gardening."These are named to recognize projects with great merit, that our judge panel explicitly wanted to honor.
In 2025, our showcase judge panel consisted of: Megan Kappel (Instructional Designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning), Hannah Johnson (DSAS Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Recruitment), LeTriece Calhoun (Teaching Assistant Professor in English), Addison Eldin (Teaching Assistant Professor in English), Rachel Starry (Head of Digital Scholarship Services, University Library Services), and Dmitrity Babichenko (Clinical Professor of SCI, Assistant Director of DNID), and Jessica FitzPatrick (Director of DNID and DML). Open Labs Creation Awards were judged by Aaron Graham (Director of Open Lab). We thank our judges, and the Open Lab, who hosted and supported this year's event.
Congratulations to every contributor to the showcase! We can't wait to see what you make next.
Sincerely,
Jessica FitzPatrick
Director of the Digital Media Lab (DML)
Director of the Digital Media Lab (DML)
Rozie Fero
DML Assistant
Audio (Narrative): "Sweet Tooth"
Creator: Noah Evans
Class: Introduction to Audio Storytelling
Instructor: Erin Anderson
"I wrote an essay about baking cookies with my Grammam six years ago and I wanted to take the theme of sugar to the present, highlighting my time with her through that. The idea for the project originated from an audio recording I collected of my Grammam and I waiting in line to get ice cream this past summer (2024).I have done personal writing before, but never adapted it to the audio medium, so pacing, layering, and sound effects posed a fun challenge." -Noah Evans
Audio (Narrative): "Love is Like a Shadow"
Creator: Brooke Murawski
Class: Introduction to Audio Storytelling
Instructor: Erin Anderson
"For this piece, I was assigned to tell a story within 3 minutes following a prompt of my choosing. I chose the prompt where we had to include the dialogue “Whatever happened to you? You used to smile all the time,” a sound effect of typing, and a story that took place in the medieval period. Because I love vampires, I immediately thought of how a vampire would be able to reflect on the medieval time they lived in and type their memories. This led to the rest of the piece’s story. (Content warning: implied violence and blood-sucking.) The sound effects were my own recordings and recordings on Freesound.org. The voice actors requested to remain anonymous. I used Adobe Audition as my audio editing software. " -Brooke Murawski
Audio (Podcast): "An Evening With Harry Potter "
Creator: Samantha Demas
Class: Composing Digital Media
Instructor: Jialei Jiang
"This assignment was to conduct an interview with a real or fictional person and to create a podcast that conveys a narrative. In “An Evening With Harry Potter”, I chose to interview a fictional character, Harry Potter, because I was interested in exploring the format of an interview where I, as the writer of the script, had to put myself in the position of both the interviewer and interviewee. I chose Harry Potter as my interviewee both for nostalgic reasons as well as for his distinct voice, both orally and tonally. To represent Harry’s voice, I utilized the website ElevenLabs to artificially generate audio files. For me, this podcast was about experimenting with and testing both the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence in terms of audio storytelling. By implementing this technology, I liked how this project allowed for unique results and created stories that otherwise could not be orally told. The podcast was edited on Adobe Audition combining my voice, ElevenLabs’ artificial audio, and additional copyright free sound files." -Samantha Demas
Audio: “An Interview with Spencer Reid”
Creators: Sofia Marretta
Class: ENGCMP Composing Digital Media
Instructors: Jialei Jiang
"'My podcast assignment interviews Spencer Reid, a fictional criminal profiler from the Criminal Minds universe. I chose to interview him because true crime podcasts are of massive popularity, and as a professional in the field I figured Dr. Reid would provide fascinating insight. Although he is a fictional character, I am hoping that our conversation humanizes the genre. Oftentimes true crime stories are taken so far from their original occurrence that they can be sensationalized and glamorized. I think that a conversation with an active participant emphasizes that these acts are not just stories. It also informs people about what teams are in place to protect our safety. I used AI for a great deal of this project. To write my script, I used a Spencer Reid character AI. This bot is programmed to respond with the character’s personality. I asked the chat the questions I would’ve asked the real person, and edited them as needed. If I felt like something was vaguely off I would tweak it to how I believed he would respond. To record my audio, I cloned the actor’s voice using Speechify. The inflection is very on par for the character, as it was made off of a vocal sample. Any parts that sounded a bit robotic actually felt very correct for the character. Spencer is known for being a computer of a human; an underdeveloped boy genius. This process was very tedious, but I think it makes a world of a difference." -Sofia Marretta
Audio: “A Comprehensive Guide to 'Match' Making ”
Creator: Alex Bennett
Class: Intro to Audio Storytelling
Instructors: Erin Anderson
Note: Project also available to view in-person at showcase
"Audio Essays have a very unique approach to storytelling that other mediums do not. I find that, in the process of creating one, they serve as an excellent exploration into anticipation, punctuation, drama, and atmosphere. This course, ‘Intro to Audio Storytelling’ allowed me to make a piece that attributed structure to a series of disjointed stories. In ‘A Comprehensive Guide to 'Match' Making’ I was especially strategic with the image systems that were created and amplified by sound effects and music. The moment I realized I needed to end the story by blowing out a candle, everything came together. I was able to carry the idea of candle wax, burning, and rules, all together into one cohesive narrative. I really appreciate that the workshops in this course were able to stop me in my fast paced planning and reflect on how things are understood externally. As a whole this project was a learning experience that I deeply appreciated. I learned so much about how to write conversationally and how to build relatability within a scene with just a few words. Ultimately this piece pushed me to do something more with my work, I was able to attribute meaning to sound in a very personal manner, something I haven't really delved into yet. I am grateful for this course and hope that this is the first step in a series of projects that tell stories that me, and hopefully my peers, find significant in our lives."-Alex Bennett
Audio: “Catching More Than Pokémon: A Conversation with Ash Ketchum”
Creators: Praz Nagarajan
Class: Composing Digital Media
Instructors: Jjialei Jiang
"This piece was created as part of a media assignment focused on conducting and presenting a character-driven interview. The goal was to engage with storytelling through a fictional or pop-culture lens while incorporating journalistic structure, tone, and flow. I chose Ash Ketchum as the interview subject because of his iconic status in global pop culture and his long, dynamic narrative arc in the Pokémon series. My motivation was to explore Ash not just as a trainer, but as a person — someone who has grown from an eager kid in Pallet Town to a world champion. I aimed to balance humor and nostalgia with thoughtful reflection, giving the audience a fresh perspective on a character they may have grown up with. The interview format allowed me to dive deeper into Ash’s motivations, friendships, and challenges — beyond the usual fast-paced adventure scenes."-Praz Nagarajan
Design Jam: “HomeRoom”
Creators: Seán O'Rourke, Oscar Mailman, Jagr Krtanjek, Grace Ward
Jam Facilitators: Jessica FitzPatrick, Christopher Maverick, & Abby Zimmerman
Please note: Below is a embed from Figma, a hi-fidelity prototyping tool: you can click around the screen as you would on a computer window, exploring functionalities of the project.
To see full design elements & documentation, please visit link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uOQmZI8ZRjBBKWaWlJFWHhh7fbAM4YcH...
"We set out to create a virtual classroom focused on bringing together students and teachers as a community - with an added benefit of extending our communities beyond what we previously thought possible, with an en-masse-speaker feature! HomeRoom was a product of the Design Jam, a one-week long prompted design sprint for the "Smart School" prompt. In our project, we built upon the design personas presented with user interviews, created sticky-note diagrams, crazy 8 ideation, drew procreate wireframes, culminating in a Figma prototype and an awesome pitch that won us the Jammer's Award!" -HomeRoom Team
Design Jam: “Time Forge”
Creators: Bonsu Tutu, Henry Wilson, Angeline Pho
Jam Facilitators: Jessica FitzPatrick, Christopher Maverick, & Abby Zimmerman
To view project design pitch, visit: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cZwfIgoGkheNNmxGr_ljgqtN8nW_s-LO...
Please note: Below is a embed from Figma, a hi-fidelity prototyping tool: click and drag to see how wireframes might look in an actual device when built out.
Jam board available through this link: https://jamboard.google.com/d/1__cE2RSCru05eNxIXVHcJOONM4GIYLKiMzYH9B6c7...
"This spring saw the inaugural Design Jam: the friendly design competition where undergraduate or graduate student participants from teams of 2-5 in order to address a real world problem, prototyping their solutions and pitching them before a panel of professional judges and their jam peers for awards! The design challenge this year was "Smart School," and teams were given three personas (a student, a professor, and a staff member of dining services) with specific needs, wants, and personal contexts to include in their considerations for designs. After a week, teams pitched their designs to a judging panel. For more information about the design jam's first year, see https://dmap.pitt.edu/node/325 -- we hope you join us next year! The Judges found Time Forge to be anchored in strong design best practices, with engaging and exciting design outputs--the project won the Judge's Choice Award." -Jessica FitzPatrick
Game: "An Attempt To Fly"
Creator: Seán O'Rourke
Class: DNID Capstone in English
Instructor: Jessica FitzPatrick
To play and learn more about this project, visit this link: https://seankirbyorourke.itch.io/an-attempt-to-fly
"Since freshman year of college, I planned to make a game that would delve into flying mechanics in platforming, while also speaking to personal themes via the framing device of the woodlands, and their creatures. Senior year comes along, with my DNID English Capstone class, and it’s finally time to create the game that would become An Attempt to Fly. The class structured itself for me to think differently about my game. Instead of thinking of it in a vacuum, for myself – to instead open my ideas up into and ground my work in the broader context of players, pre-existing media, and historical research. I found inspiration in the Open Doors for the Handicapped ULS Archive. Particularly, in the historical reports of what benefits the handicapped, and how the accommodations are often misaligned (THE IMPACT OF SECTION 504). In our case studies of other media I found inspiration; and with them, I was able to iterate upon my concept to more fully flesh out the narrative with fictional and historical aspects, and improve the movement design of my game. The main challenge for this vertical slice of the game is to climb a tree. For this, my game garnered a lot of positive attention for its story, expansive world, and platforming challenge. However, if I want this game to achieve its goal of inspiring others to keep trying in their own lives, more revisions of the game are needed. I project that adding in the rest of the narrative would help in this – as the story could speak to perseverance over time."-Seán O'Rourke
Game: "Stone Soup"
Creator: Sagid Saleh
Class: Digital Narrative And Interactive Design Course
Instructor: Dmitriy Babichenko, Christopher Maverick
To play this game, visit: https://siiv.itch.io/stone-soup
"This project was designed in team; our inspiration was to choose a popular children's story / folktale to adapt into an interactive experience. We chose this version of stone soup because of the universal themes involved as well as the relevance of it's lesson particularly in todays climate. As it stands, the project is just an exploration into this story, rather than a complete experience and we focused mainly on the artistic and environmental elements first."-Sagid Saleh
Game: "Stag Party"
Creator: Paige Branagan & Kellen Weidman
Class: ENGLIT 0702 Introduction to Game Studies
Instructor: Justin Bortnick
CW: This game features graphic images and discusses topics of murder.
To play this game, visit: https://paigebranagan.itch.io/stag-party
"CW: This game features graphic images and discusses topics of murder. Stag Party is a visual novel murder mystery game, created as a final project in ENGLIT 0702 Introduction to Game Studies. As a final project, we wanted to challenge ourselves by branching out to write and design for the mystery genre, which we had never done before. With a team of two, Kellen focused on art/visual design while Paige focused on writing and implementation. This project aims to explore the navigation and investigation of a mystery with limited information presented. We drew inspiration from clay and paper doll art styles, as well as environmental storytelling/investigative style from games such as Gone Home and The Portopia Serial Murder Case. The game utilizes branching conversations with characters and investigation mechanics to slowly uncover the mystery of Stag Party."-Stag Party Creators
Game / Twine: "PRISLA Hypertext"
Creator: Aza Mohanty
Class: Narrative and Technology
Instructor: Jessica FitzPatrick
To play the game, visit: https://azaventure.github.io/prislahypertext/
"The task was to create some sort of narrative based project using the platform Twine. I was inspired by horror wikis such as the SCP Foundation, in which users submit stories of classified entities and occasionally link them to other stories. I wanted to make a traversable wiki in that similar manner, but instead of just for viewing, I wanted to introduce a playable aspect to it. Gamifying hypertext traversal in this way allowed for a fun way for people to naturally learn more about the story and have something to be searching for in the process. I wanted to make the interface fairly simple, for accessibility and also (Spoilers for the game!) the entity you're fighting against is eating away at the information, so it would make sense diegetically for the website to be barebones/on its last legs." -Aza Mohanty
Game / Twine: "'Funny "Games': a Theoretical Framework for Interactive Comedy”
Creator: John DAuria
Occasion: Summer Undergraduate Research Award
Instructor: Jessica FitzPatrick
To play this game, visit: https://anonymousjohn.itch.io/interactive-comedy-framework
To download from Github, visit: https://github.com/JLD218/portfolioResources/blob/main/PlayableComedy.html
I made this project because I wanted to develop my understanding of comedy in the digital space. So often, humor in videogames is simply performed or written into cutscenes, but I wanted to know how digital media can leverage its unique form to create new opportunities for humor. I developed a visual breakdown of the intersections between playable media and comedy, and how these connections could allow for unique manifestations of humor-John DAuria.
Graphic: “Mount Eerie's Night Palace: An Album Review”
Creator: Mandy Devine
Class: Integrating Writing and Design
Instructor: Sarah Leavens
To view this piece, visit: https://pitt-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/jlf115_pitt_edu/EfUtuCVErD...
"Hi, I’m Mandy Devine and I’m an artist, writer, and designer from West Chester, Pennsylvania exploring the intersections between the past and present. The novelty of past design, writing, and surroundings continue to guide my work as I study traditional mediums like intaglio, typesetting, and printing. However, animating sentiments in modern writing, news, and literature with the help of digital programs like Adobe InDesign and Procreate helps my work to remain exigent in a rapidly changing world. This was my final Integrating Writing and Design project, a review of the new Mount Eerie album, Night Palace. I chose to pursue this project as an opportunity to engage with my interests and extracurricular work, as well as a way to experiment with designing magazine spreads. I wanted my writing to speak to both longtime fans and new listeners by offering highlights and testimonies from the artist that, I hope, will spark interest. I tried to achieve this through discussing my first impressions of certain tracks and how they made me feel, and then placed these experiences in context with Elverum’s words and the history of the project. In my composition, I highlighted snippets of interviews that stuck with me through breakout boxes and included photos of some of the scenery that inspired his work, along with some examples of his artwork. I created and edited the spread in Adobe InDesign and wrote the text using quotes from Matthew Schnipper’s interview with Elverum on Deep Voices." -Mandy Devine
Infographic: "How to Carve a Stamp"
Creator: Mandy Devine
Class: Integrating Writing and Design
Instructor: Sarah Leavens
To access this piece, visit: https://pitt-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/jlf115_pitt_edu/EfUtuCVErD...
“Hi, I’m Mandy Devine and I’m an artist, writer, and designer from West Chester, Pennsylvania exploring the intersections between the past and present. The novelty of past design, writing, and surroundings continue to guide my work as I study traditional mediums like intaglio, typesetting, and printing. However, animating sentiments in modern writing, news, and literature with the help of digital programs like Procreate and Adobe Illustrator helps my work to remain exigent in a rapidly changing world. While creating this mini-infographic about stamp-making, I wanted it to be digestible, helpful, and visually interesting. Having clear visuals to guide viewers through the sometimes frustrating process of learning a new craft is important to me, and I tried to achieve this using limited colors, consistent font, and casual tone. However, I wanted to make the design visually interesting to draw the eye, so I placed bold fonts and textures that imitate the messy imperfections of stamp-making throughout. I had a lot of fun creating the background in particular–I overlaid tools, scraps, and finished stamps to guide the eye across the page. Overall, this piece helped me realize the equal balance of visuals and text to convey information."-Mandy Devine
Interactive Kiosk: "Architect of Tera Nova"
Creator: Kenny Feng
Class: 1130 Projects in Digital Composition
Instructor: Stephen Quigley
To access project visit this link: https://pitt-technical-communications.github.io/Architect-of-Tera-Nova/
"Taking care of our planet is a profoundly important task. I researched what makes a planet habitable and created The Architect of Tera Nova, an interactive kiosk experience that invites the user to design their own planet. To succeed, the audience will need to discover the parameters that make life possible on earth. My project reminds my audience how special the Earth is and raises awareness of ways we could support efforts to improve our planet. The goal of this project is to show the user how unique Earth is while making the experience fun and educational.." -Kenny Fend
Interactive Kiosk: "Emotional Expressions: A Lexicon of Feelings"
Creator: Karlynn Riccitelli
Class: 1130 Projects in Digital Composition
Instructor: Stephen Quigley
To access project visit this link: https://kjr80.github.io/kiosk/
To view the github repository, visit: https://github.com/kjr80/kiosk
"Emotional Expressions: A Lexicon of Feelings is an immersive collection of words for feelings that are hard to describe. It’s meant to give the user clarity and reassurance on emotions that may have been too confusing for them to express. The user views the title screen, then progresses to the next page where they are presented with several word options. They can then explore each word’s meaning, coupled with visuals and short story scenarios that invoke that feeling within them. By the end, the user should be able to better express themselves in ways they may not have thought of before. This project was coded using HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and the materials within were edited using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. The project was created for a 16:9 aspect ratio and was displayed on a kiosk screen." -Karylynn Riccitelli
Interactive Kiosk: “Excerpter ”
Creator: Rory Walsh
Class: ENGCMP 1130 Projects in Digital Composition
Instructor: Stephen Quigley
To access this project, visit: https://pitt-technical-communications.github.io/SteelTownTour/
"With this project, I sought to create an interactive, digital form of the cut-up writing technique. Using randomly parsed phrases and punctuation, I wanted to explore how a user can assemble their own personal narrative meaning from ostensibly unrelated text. To facilitate this, I wrote over 80 pieces of text and created 8 illustrations. This allowed for any input generated to be wholly original and easily executable, as the project required a kiosk-style interface that would require minimal input from a user." -Rory Walsh
Open Lab Canvas: "Open Lab Arduino Canvas"
Creator: Miles Wisner
Open Lab Summer Research and Development internship (Arduino; beginner)
Supervisor: Molly Ritter
Visit this project at: https://canvas.pitt.edu/courses/42220/pages/what-is-arduino?module_item_...
"(I created a canvas to teach students about Arduino. This was for my summer research and development internship at the Open Lab. I had to combine physical computing and digital video, my original plan was to create tutorial videos. But, my wonderful project director Molly Ritter graciously allowed me to make a canvas page which was a great opportunity! I had 12 weeks to teach myself how to build Arduino, how Canvas works, and how the Open Lab’s Canvas was organized. I am proud of what I was able to create." -Miles Wisner
Open Lab: "Open Lab Arduino Canvas"
Creators: Abby Zimmerman, Stephen Grenesko
Open Lab (technologies used: Laser Cutter/Engraver, Ultimaker 3D printers, Arduino/Raspberry Pi electronics, Soldering; Intermediate expertise across the board)
Visit this project at: https://pitt-my.sharepoint.com/:i:/g/personal/jlf115_pitt_edu/EdcjwzNh_3...
Image description: A desktop sized fully custom built arcade cabinet. Laser cut acrylic paneling housing a single board Raspberry Pi 4 computer, running custom firmware to map the control hardware (Large button and joystick), to readable input. The game is a 2D retro stylized platforming game with several levels of obstacles, built using React libraries in JavaScript. All materials sourced, built, and modified using Open Lab equipment, (laser cutting the physical cabinet, soldering the electronics, 3D printing controls, etc.)
"This project was a demonstration of how far one could push the available creative technology within the Open Lab. By combining the various machines capabilities into one project, the arcade cabinet showcases the versatility and potential of the Open Lab. It is also an exploration of the limits of the React framework for JavaScript, using what normal supports web development to create something more interactive and tangible." -Abby Zimmerman, Stephen Grenesko
Social Media: "Remarkable Women Project Women's History Month Social Media Campaign"
Creator: Natalie Cohen
Class: Public and Professional Writing Internship
Instructor: Sarah Levans
To access project, visit this link: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGjoHouRU8/Pn6QzRhAKkb_OLWeAD4wSA/view
Remarkable Women Project Women's History Month Social Media Campaign by natalie dc "This project was created for my Spring 2025 Internship with the Remarkable Women Project, a feminist nonprofit based in New York City dedicated to telling the stories of remarkable women throughout world history. This 31-day social media campaign for Women’s History Month was conceived, partially written, and moderated by Alice Look, co-founder of the Remarkable Women Project. All designs were created by me using Canva; the color palette utilized was inspired by the Remarkable Women Project’s logo, created by Evan Pittson. I also assisted in the researching, writing, and copyediting portions of this month-long project. Some women featured in this project—indicated by the QR codes—were researched and written about by Alice Look in her Remarkable Women Stories blog and/or book, Remarkable Women: Reclaiming Their Stories. Each graphic hyperlinks to its respective Instagram post. The purpose of this project is to honor the groundbreaking works of women—from activists to writers to politicians to athletes to inventors—throughout global history." - Natalie Cohen
Video: "Experiments in 3D Animation"
Creator: Bennett Cox
Class: Experiments in 3D Animation
Instructor: Tony Balko
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"These were the specifications of my assignment: "Use a Rigid Body (Physics) Simulation in Blender to make objects collide. In the spirit of Baudrillard, distort some (or all) of the physics to push your 'rigid body world' even further from the 'real world' it's imitating." I thought the reverse of an "is it cake?" video would be funny, where instead of something that doesn't look like cake being cake, something that looks like a cake isn't a cake."- Bennett Cox
Video: "Where Them Girls At (Scooby Doo Edition)"
Creator: Bennett Cox
Class: Experiments in 3D Animation
Instructor: Tony Balko
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"I was tasked with creating a dance animation for class and creating background video for a Scooby Doo themed dance performance, so I created this using DeepMotionAI to record and upload the dance choerography, and Blender to create the club environment and lighting.."- Bennett Cox
Video: "Community at Hazelwood Cafe"
Creator: Samantha Demas, Caitlin Koebe, Kalynn Kuchta, Farren Levitt
Class: Composing Digital Media, Spring 2025
Instructor: Jialei Jiang
To view this project visit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/8hWRGbGE8cw
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"This video was created to highlight the local coffee shop, Hazelwood Cafe, and fulfill our client’s request for a 30 second, vertical video to post on their social media. After meeting with representatives from the cafe, it was clear to our group that the heart of the business lay in meeting the needs of the community and serving as a highly valuable third space for community events. We were motivated to showcase how altruistic goals and good coffee can combine to bring people together. Our group filmed with the intention to spotlight the Hazelwood Cafe logo through unique camera shots, while also conveying the value of community shown through the personal interactions in the video."- Community at Hazelwood Cafe Team
Video: "I Saw the Signs"
Creator: Paige Manges
Class: Images, Icons, and Ideas
Instructor: Jialei Jiang
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"I Saw the Signs is my final project for the course Images, Icons, and Ideas. In the project, I analyze and deconstruct the role of images in urban life, particularly advertisement images. The video begins with the images that we are accustomed to seeing as definitive of the city, which are almost beautiful. These images are then disrupted by billboards with all images removed, emphasizing the strange nature of giant screens towering above streets and on the sides of buildings. The billboard screens glitch toward messages from scholarly writings and my own analysis that question and critique their existence and importance as symbols for consumer culture. Once the image of the billboard is deconstructed with an awareness of its strangeness, the video continues with a second and more relieved glitch sequence, just as the city continues to operate under the acceptance that, through these images, society is removed from its original state. I made the project in After Effects, adding and removing images and text to billboards and animating the glitch sequences."- Paige Manges
Video: "Romanticize Pittsburgh with Me!"
Creator: Sofia Marretta, Kathleen Madden, Srushti Chavan
Class: 2254 ENGCMP Composing Digital Media
Instructor: Jialei Jiang
To view this project, visit: https://pitt-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/jlf115_pitt_edu/EV5CwQtLwZ...?
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"For this assignment, we were tasked with creating promotional videos for a local cafe. Inspired by online influencers, we wanted to create an ad that didn't quite feel like an ad. Lifestyle videos are extremely popular, so we played off that with a day in the life style. Using footage from the actual cafe makes the video feel genuine rather than manufactured. The video editing was done in Canva and paired with hopeful, enthusiastic music to set the tone. The process was very exciting and we are pleased with the final product."- Romanticize Pittsburgh Team
Video: "Taste & vibe: Hazelwood Cafe video"
Creator: Praz Nagarajan
Class: Composing Digital Media
Instructor: Jialei Jiang
To view this project, visit: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KDN4Hq9oRsQ
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KDN4Hq9oRsQ
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"This piece was created as a short-form promotional reel to showcase the atmosphere, culture, and mission of Hazelwood Cafe. The assignment called for a visually engaging media piece under 30 seconds, with a clear narrative or thematic focus. My motivation for this video was to communicate the cafe’s warm, inclusive vibe through visuals alone — using light, motion, and music to evoke a sense of connection. I focused on shots that captured key elements of the space: rich coffee textures, welcoming decor, and glimpses of community interactions. The reel includes no dialogue, allowing viewers to absorb the visuals and atmosphere at their own pace.."- Praz Nagarajan
Video: "The Sonic Movie Trailer Did Not Need Gangsta's Paradise"
Creator: Seán O'Rourke
Class: Composing Digital Media
Instructor: Addison Eldin
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"Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) movie's first trailer came under fire for the uncanny valley appearance of its titular character, prompting a redesign, and pushback of the release date. After a few months of anticipation, a second trailer was released to display the changes. However, while much of the focus is on the visuals of this redesign - no formal research has been done on the audible shift between the first and second trailers, as well as how they compare to the sound of other Sonic media. This podcast will compare the songs chosen, sound effects used, and instrumentals of the two trailers. I aim to showcase this aspect of the development process between these trailers, to show how the redesign was not only visual but auditory as well - analyze this change in a new way. Being one of the first people to see the new trailer - I am very invested in this subject already. I love film, media, the development process, feedback, and Sonic, so this topic is a combination of many things I am interested about. I had a lot of fun looking at this from a new angle. I would like others to see the efforts and changes Paramount put into the redesign as well. A podcast format assists listeners in focusing on the auditory changes I want to draw attention to."-Seán O'Rourke
Web: "Steel City Gardening"
Creator: Emmanuelle Brent
Class: DNID Capstone in English
Instructor: Jessica FitzPatrick
Below is a Figma hi-fidelity prototype, please click and scroll to explore!
To view video tour of this project, visit: https://pitt-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/jlf115_pitt_edu/EdYmsFNUEX...
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"This project was created as my English Capstone for the DNID major. I hadn't previously had the opportunity to work with Figma or go through a complete prototyping process, so I was knew I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to learn it. I am very passionate about sustainability, and this project specifically addresses the topic of food insecurity, a major inhibitor to sustainable development today. I wanted to acknowledge systemic issues and the history of Pittsburgh that contributes to food insecurity today, while also offering actionable steps that meet people where they're at."-Emmanuelle Brent
Web: "Her Hormone Handbook"
Creator: Sydney Rodriguez
Class: DNID Capstone in English
Instructor: Jessica FitzPatrick
Below is a Figma hi-fidelity prototype, please click and scroll to explore!
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"Last summer, my OBGYN discovered a cyst on my ovary, which sent me into a spiral of self-care and hormonal education. Her Hormone Handbook started as a way for me to continue my personal educational journey about my hormones and to share my knowledge with those who find themselves in similar positions as me or just want to learn about their bodies. This project is intended to be a casual, educational website dedicated to introducing important hormone-related topics to women and female-identifying individuals of all ages. Her Hormone Handbook can act as a guidebook for individuals in any stage of life to educate themselves about the importance of caring for their hormones. This website includes surface-level information about the female hormonal system because this is not a medical professional website. The information being provided is not intended to be medical professional advice."-Sydney Rodriguez
Web: "One-Stop Moments"
Creator: Peter Ju
Class: Narrative and Technology
Instructor: Addison Eldin
To view this project, visit: https://finesite.org/onestopmoments/
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"Inspired by the discord server my friends created that slowly dies with everyone having different matters to focus on in their lives, One-stop Moment tells the story about Nova the protagonist and his friends.."-Peter Ju