MassIT Year in Review 2016–2017
Role: Junior Graphic Designer (Intern, DigitalMass / MASS.gov)
Project: Year-in-Review visual content for MassIT
Deliverables: social graphics, infographics, support assets for multiple platforms
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator (assumed based on Behance context)
Dates: 2016–2017 intern period; published online Oct 15, 2025
🎯 Background & Objective
The Massachusetts Information Technology (MassIT) division of MASS.gov commissioned a Year in Review campaign to highlight major accomplishments and activities from 2016–2017. The narrative and original content were primarily developed for the official MassIT blog. The core objective was to adapt these pieces into social media-friendly visuals that met platform requirements (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) while retaining consistent brand voice and accessibility.
As the assigned Graphic Designer intern, my responsibility was to translate the existing blog graphics and messaging into optimized layouts for social channels, ensuring clarity, engagement, and visual storytelling that reflects the Mass.gov brand.
🧩 Design Challenges
Multiple Platform Specifications
Blog graphics were designed in a single aspect ratio, unsuitable for Instagram squares, Twitter cards, or Facebook feeds.
Each platform mandates different dimensions and content prioritization (e.g., safe area for text).
Approach: Redesign layouts, reorganize elements, and simplify compositions to fit each platform without losing key information or brand style.
Brand Consistency Across Formats
Maintaining a cohesive visual identity while resizing was critical.
Stock images and graphic elements from approved MASS.gov resources were used so assets stayed consistent with state branding guidelines.
Approach: Establish a modular grid system so elements could scale and reflow naturally across formats.
Resource Limitations
Original editable files were lost due to technical failures; therefore, many assets had to be recreated from remaining images and approved stock.
Approach: Reverse-engineered existing graphics and developed new assets when necessary, ensuring consistency in style and hierarchy.
🎨 Design Strategy
1. Resizing & Reformatting for Platforms
Created multiple versions of each graphic tailor-fit for:
Instagram (square/portrait)
Twitter/Facebook (wide)
LinkedIn (professional layout)
Reduced clutter and prioritized core content (headlines, metrics, calls-to-action) for quick comprehension.
2. Visual Hierarchy for Readability
Adjusted typographic scale so titles and statistics are legible without scrolling.
Designed simple infographics when data needed visual emphasis.
3. Asset Reuse & Systemization
Built templates for future “Year in Review” graphics to improve scalability beyond this internship cycle.
Created a repeated visual motif (color accents, icons) to unify pieces across platforms.
🛠 Contributions Outside Core Scope
In addition to resizing, I also:
Assisted with infographics and copy support across teams.
Contributed ideas for posters and visuals used by DigitalMass.
Provided design feedback and collaborative critique to peers.
📊 Impact & Value
This campaign achieved several key outcomes:
✔ Improved Platform Engagement — Optimized graphics helped ensure the Year in Review content was visible and legible on each platform’s unique display format.
✔ Brand Alignment — The redesigned posts supported consistent MASS.gov brand integrity across channels.
✔ Reusable Templates — The modular resizing strategy and templates built during this project provided a foundation for future social campaigns.
✔ Cross-Team Support — Graphic and design feedback practices contributed to broader communications efforts within the MassIT DigitalMass team.
📌 Key Takeaways
Adaptability matters: Transforming static blog graphics into dynamic social formats requires strict adherence to platform specs and creative flexibility.
Systems thinking is essential: Modular design systems simplify production for multi-platform campaigns and future content reuse.
Collaborative execution: Success depended on communication with senior designers, content strategists, and cross-functional teams. The graphics were made by me for resizing and some of the Originals were created by Minghua of MassIT before their computer crashed and we lost all the working files. I created everything on my own from images we could find and the work was the blog posts we're originally done by her before she did more UXUI Design at MassIT. As an internship, this is a collection of my social media graphic design work both original and reworked to be for other social medias. I selected our favorites to show here for presentation but also because some of our work got lost, including my own, due to files or laptops being stolen and unable to be recovered.
At MassIT, my main job when designing social media posts outside of the blog was to resize (redesign the layout and certain elements) of the graphic to fit on the selected social media. Some posts that say Final Graphic that blog sized posts were also my ideas that I later resized into instagram and other sizes as well. In addition to that, I worked on various print and web series of posters for the DigitalMass team that were my ideas and I contributed to other teams and work by helping with infographics, feedback, and copy text. I worked under a senior designer in this internship. The Images and stock graphics were sourced from the approved Mass.gov stock image sites and folders within DigitalMass.
