Intern Profile
The Japan-America Society of Alabama (JASA) selects 1-2 interns in the Fall and Spring semesters. I was given the opportunity to become one of two interns in the Fall of 2025. My first assignment was to create ‘Intern Profiles’ to be posted on all JASA’s social media, website, and Newsletter.
Beginning Stages
When I was assigned to design the intern profiles, I immediately gathered inspiration for the design. The guideance I was given was for the design to be “fun and professional”. JASA’s audience consists of college aged adults interested in Japanese cultures, as well as business leaders and partners of the organization so the design would need to appeal to both groups.
The inspiration that I used on this design is what I call ‘scrapbook cutouts’. I felt this would be fun and relatable to the younger audience while being simple and clean for professionals. I started sketching layouts [seen on right] and writing mock blurbs for the caption.
Rough Draft
Design inspiration
The challenge
When creating my first initial designs, I formatted the image for Instagram. Considering the design’s appearance on a social media feed, it should not be too busy as to overwhelm the viewer. With the need to incorporate two images, text, and drawn elements, it was a challenge to position everything.
Using scrapbook cutouts, I found the simplest way to fit two images on the post was to cut the subject out of the original picture or use Polaroid picture frames to scale the image to fit in the frame. This idea made my designs visually appealing while also adding a more personal touch.
Please review the images on the left to view my initial design concepts.
Final Layout
As shown on the right, the final design layout features each intern’s professional picture cut out, allowing the viewer to focus on the person first before viewing the other elements in the post. This grabs viewers in as they scroll, making them return to see who is on their feed.
The colors utilized in the design, pink and gray, are JASA’s official brand colors. This keeps the post in theme with the organization, making it easily recognizable compared to other brands.
Additional elements include bamboo, cherry blossom branches, and koi fish to reference Japan.
The Data
On Facebook, this post had a total of 1,019 viewers, compared to their usual 403. Additionally, there were a total of 20 interactions, comprising 18 likes and 2 shares. JASA was able to gain 1 new follower on this platform.
Instagram saw a significant increase in viewership, with 1,697 viewers compared to 453 regular viewers. This post received a total of 26 interactions, broken down as follows: 20 likes, 4 shares, and 1 comment.
LinkedIn’s post had a 17.1% engagement rate with 246 impressions and 132 members reached. The post had a total of 15 reactions, 1 comment, and 3 reposts.
Newsletter
The newsletter sent this special edition email to a total of 859 people. The open rate of this email was 47.5%, compared to the usual 40% opening rate.
