VALLEY Magazine

2025

Overview

Founded in 2007, VALLEY is one of Penn State's premier student-run life and style magazines. Our mission is to bring style, entertainment and lifestyle trends to our Penn State students, community and beyond. We publish one print issue a semester and also post daily online content throughout the year.

  • I was selected through a competitive application and interview process to join VALLEY my sophomore year as a Graphic Design Assistant. By my second semester with the magazine, I was promoted to the position of Graphic Design Director. As Graphic Design Director, I manage a team of nine designers and oversee the visual direction of each issue from concept through final production.

    We design titles, layouts, and section openers, then handle full-issue formatting to keep everything visually consistent across print and digital. I lead critiques, assign spreads, and ensure files are fully resolved and print-ready before release, balancing creative direction with the organization needed to keep the magazine cohesive and on schedule.

Photography

Magazine

Typography

Team Management

For VALLEY’s most recent issue, I was challenged with designing all of our section opener pages.

The task challenged me to build a system that felt both grounding and playful, allowing a breathable yet exciting bridge for readers transitioning from section to section. I focused on developing a flexible but consistent visual structure that could hold the magazine together but also allow room for experimentation across sections.

Each issue has a pair of designers assigned to each section:

Health & Beauty, Fashion, Campus Culture, etc., with each section consisting of 3-5 articles. In my past two semesters here at VALLEY, I’ve gotten the chance to design for multiple articles, photoshoots, video content, merch, and more!

Teams within the Creative Division often get the chance to cross-collaborate

on a range of projects. Pictured to the right is a spread that I worked with the photo team to develop. I was challenged with combining a handful of photos from the shoot to visualize a glitched reality where an avatar / digital world is beginning to overtake the natural.

I was also lucky enough to work with videographer Thaddeus Poff,

the talent who shot and edited this video, in creating type for him to integrate throughout the edit that was then posted as promotional content on VALLEY Magazine’s socials.

Photography by Nia Myers, Editing by me.

Shot for “Hypnosis” : VALLEY Issue #35

Back

I’ve also had several of my designs chosen and sold for VALLEY’s merch

Merch is a fun way for VALLEY to promote and raise funds for launch, shoots, etc. In my first semester with the org my design (above) was chosen for our official merch, and now as Design Director I get to lead the merch team each semester.

Front

This is just an inkling of the awesome work I get to be a part of at VALLEY.

A place where I’ve been able to sharpen my technical skill, further explore pacing and how it relates to design solutions, gain experience in a director role, contribute meaningfully to how the editorial voice comes to life, and most of all, where I’ve been able to be a part of an amazing community.

Click here to read the latest issue of VALLEY magazine now!