Every member at L+R is critical to our high-quality work, and the fellows are no different. Each summer, L+R opens its doors to some fresh perspectives through a fellowship program. This year, we welcomed three Design Fellows to the team from various backgrounds to work alongside the team remotely for a summer of learning, mentorship, and growth. These talented individuals have been working on L+R projects in collaboration with our staff to be able to share their fresh perspectives while growing their unique skillset.
Trent Howell: Exploring beyond the reaches of standard graphic design
A fresh graduate from the University of Dayton studying Graphic Design, Trent has brought his passion in design fields beyond strict graphic design, ranging from motion design to 3D design, interactive design, and type design.
"The beauty of having an agency work internationally is that people bring different perspectives and approaches to each project. I hope to learn more about team members' backgrounds and how that plays into their work."
Trent's interest in design stemmed from early high school when he first took a digital design course and enjoyed the process of designing. He began reading about design history and working towards design as a profession.
Aside from his work at L+R, Trent has been especially interested in type design, using his free time to design his own typefaces—a skill that arose from having time in the pandemic to explore his creativity.
Sonia Shah: Strategic design thinking student at UPenn
A senior at the University of Pennsylvania, Sonia was born and raised in New Jersey and works primarily from our New York office in DUMBO. She's studying in the Design program at Penn, a broad program reflective of her interdisciplinary interests. Most of her background has been in graphic and branding design, and she is now exploring UI/UX, print, and publication design and enjoying both digital and physical design applications.
Sonia is interested in being a designer but flexing her strategic thinking brain, so her goals are to learn as much as possible from different people. Sonia appreciated L+R's flat hierarchy and work structure, learning not only from graphic designers but UX designers and strategists.
"Agency experience is something you can't get from the classroom, and I've already learned so much about this environment from observing the thoughtful, practiced ways that L+R team members work together. The people at L+R are truly some of the most dedicated and talented people to work with."
Beyond digital design, Sonia likes to use her free time on creative activities that are more tactile, finding particular enjoyment in the craft of ceramics and wheel throwing.
What's been exciting about this group of fellows is how quickly they've leveraged the learnings and mentorship from that duplicative work to execute high-quality deliverables independently. It's fun to see their unique eyes begin to expand L+R's visual and strategic vocabulary.
Julia Keller
Director of Research and Operations
Ray Chang: An international perspective with a New York twist
Ray Chang joins L+R as a rising senior studying Design at the School of Visual Arts. Before moving to New York City, Ray has spent time in Taiwan, Singapore, and Shanghai.
"My exposure to different cultures allowed me to explore what each had to offer, and design was something I gravitated towards after learning about fashion and street culture in high school. I stumbled across L+R from reading about one of their projects, which was their work with Louis Vuitton."
Although in his final year of school, Ray hopes his time at L+R will help him develop skills to kickstart the transition into a professional designer. He's already engaged in valuable learning, from technical design skills to broader skills that are useful in any working context, like "learning how to communicate with a team and clients," and "project, time management, and working with people outside my field of study."
Ray is strongly drawn to art, design, and fashion and is interested in branding and art direction within the design industry, both two and three-dimensional.
Our fellows have made significant contributions to the team, working on various projects and bringing a new perspective to L+R's design thinking, processes and culture. We're looking forward to continuing to see our fellows grow and have their work shared and appreciated.
