NYU OGP
graphic design
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Timeline: October - November 2025
Team: Solo
In the Fall of 2025, I completed a study abroad semester at NYU Sydney. During this time, I served as the Intercultural Learning Fellow for the office. I was tasked with creating a final project that would help educate future students about Australian life and culture. My full presentation on the postcards, which I gave to the NYU Office of Global Programs, can be viewed here.
During this time, I also hosted educational programming for students, which encouraged exploration in the city and engagement with local communities.
During my time in Sydney, I was constantly learning about the many different people who called Australia home. In American media at least, my sense was that Australian culture often was pigeonholed into a few specific caricatures: barbecues, beaches, the wild "bushman" (think Steve Irwin), and a general carefree posture towards life. On the contrary, the Australia I saw was far more interesting than these commonly shown images.
Thus, for my project, I wanted to highlight multiculturalism in Sydney to inform others about less represented aspects of Australian society. I took photos from different parts of Sydney, with each postcard dedicated to a different neighborhood or place.
To create each postcard, I used Photoshop to crop and edit photos as needed. I then used both Adobe Illustrator and Figma to add graphic elements. My focus was on capturing the mood, feelings, and beauty of each particular community. For each postcard, I made sure to have notes for their significance in the greater Sydney area, along with what I noticed walking around.
From this project, I learned a lot about how visual design can be used to create narratives and stories about a certain place. With my postcards, I realized too that I was shaping my own narrative of Australia as a foreigner who was just visiting. As a nation of immigrants on Aboriginal land, Australia is perhaps the best example of how these themes can manifest themselves. With this project, I'm hopeful that future exchange students at NYU will better be able to see the beauty and diversity of Australian culture.
