Mariana Matos

Orchid is a hand-bound, partially riso-printed, completely self-authored brick of a book discussing my experiences as an immigrant, and how moving around the world has affected me and made me into who I am today. This project required lots of digging through old family photos, calling parents to provide context or clear up messy timelines, and a considerable amount of introspection. All of this came together into a 287-page publication featuring countless scanned photographs and over 10,000 words of original writing.

Did you know that bees can get jet lag? This fun fact is the subject of this motion design piece. Inspired by the look of ancient scientist’s notes, this 2-minute video explains how a team of scientists proved that bees perceive time just like humans. This project involved research, writing a script, finding a VO actor, as well as many (many) styleframes and storyboards in order to come into fruition. 2 minutes ended up feeling like quite the short time to tell this story, but with revisions to the script, it all came together.

Green Thumbs Detroit a (fictitious) non-profit oranization that supports food equity in the Metro Detroit area. Inspired by the increasing popularity of urban farming in Detroit, which has attempted to mitigate Detroit’s food desert issues, Green Thumbs Detroit has pioneered a specialized aeroponic technology that allows Detroiters to grow their own fruits and veggies in their own homes with no previous gardening experience required.

What We Wore is a rotating collections platform or “mini-exhibit” at the Henry Ford Museum that showcases items of clothing from the rich and vast Henry Ford collection. These pieces, from clothing to accessories to full outfits, tell a multitude of stories about who wore them and what life was like during that period of history. This rotation focuses on American designer Bonnie Cashin. In an effort to further illustrate her main philosophy of designing for the “Woman on the Go”, the clothing has been displayed in a way that shows motion and the ability to mix and match different pieces to create an outfit. The graphics further reflect her guiding principles by creating a sense of motion through graphic elements. Vinyl quotes on all sides of the glass allow Bonnie to speak for herself.

DeRoy Education Partners (DeEP) is a new non-profit organization funded by the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation that supports college sophomores and juniors. The DeEP Fellowship program provides financial assistance, mentorship and volunteer experience. This scholarship opportunity also brings their fellows together for regular career coaching workshops, fostering a sense of camaraderie within the fellow group. Working in a team of four, we built a complete brand identity for DeEP from scratch. Through collaboration and discussion with the organization’s board, we settled on a visual system that both fits DeEP’s mission and is approachable and appealing to their target audience.

An exercise in motion design, this lyric video utilizes typography, repetition and stylized imagery to visualize the upbeat sound and catchy lyrics of this super fun Chairlift song. This project was a quick one: after spending some time moodboarding, styleframing, and cutting audio, we jumped straight into After Effects to finish this project in only 3 weeks.