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Podcast: S9 Ep. 19
Date: July 13, 2026
Title: LU Moment | Behind the Brand: Meet the LU graphic designers | S9 Ep. 19
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. Today, we'll be passing the microphone to three of the most behind-the-scenes employees at ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University, the three university graphic designers. You can see their work all across campus, but today we get to sit down with the folks who make the magic happen to hear more about their roles. Michelle Lancaster, Jenna Devens, and Cameron Uresti. Welcome to all three of you, and thanks for joining me today on the podcast.

JENNA DEVENS: Thanks for having us.

JOHN: So, let's go ahead and start with some introductions. We know you're all three the campus graphic designers, but what else would you like to share about yourselves? Tell us your title here at LU, and let's have you introduce yourselves. Ladies first.

MICHELLE LANCASTER: Hi, I'm Michelle Lancaster. I'm the senior graphic designer. I've been here about three years, and I graduated in 2020 with the Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design.

JOHN: Alumni, awesome. Jenna?

JENNA: I'm Jenna Devens. I am the athletics graphic designer, so I cover all 17 varsity sports teams here at ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ. I graduated in 2025 from Saint Michael's College in Vermont, so I've been here only about four months.

JOHN: Fresh graduate for sure. And Cameron, what about you?

CAMERON URESTI: I graduated here in 2017 in graphic design. I've been working for ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ for, I just hit a year a couple of months ago in my position as graphic designer for marketing communications.

JOHN: So okay, go ahead and take us back. What was the moment or story that made you realize that graphic design, like okay, that's my thing. That's what I want to pursue. Whoever wants to start first.

MICHELLE: Okay, I'll start. Well, so when I first went into college, I was going to University of Houston, and I was an environmental science major, and I really hated it. No offense to environmental science majors, but I just like I really didn't like it, and then no, it was not for me. And then I failed the calculus, and I'm like, you know what? This is a rough first semester, and so I'm just going to do a degree that I want to do, and I really enjoyed it. And it got better once I got to ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ because I think there's more community here, and there, it's very one-on-one with your teachers, and you can really collaborate with your classmates, and so it was just a really good learning experience. I'm like, I know this is what I want to do.

JENNA: I was very creative growing up, but when it came time to this spot in high school, everyone was like, "What do you want to do with your life?” I did not know. I knew that I was into sports and I knew I was into art, but everyone in high school was like, "You’re either Math and Science or English and History,” and I didn't fall into that category. Yeah, I was more Gym/Art, which now makes a lot of sense. So, I went to college undecided, and sophomore year I had to pick a major, and one of our athletic directors posted on social media that they needed an intern for the graphic design position. So, I kind of learned a lot of it through that, and then that's when I kind of decided to pick up the graphic design major and really dive into that in school.

JOHN: And you're like, “I showed them -- these these two things do work together.” Athletics graphic designer, take that right. What about you, Cameron?

CAMERON: I remember, you know, I always like drawing and stuff in my classes, and so kind of like Jenna, I was at that point in high school where we had to start figuring out a career, and I wasn't really sure what. But then we had to take like a test at some point, kind of to figure out what career you would be fit for. And that was one of the things that was recommended to me was graphic design, and so that was kind of in my head. And then for one of my art classes, we had a one of my art teachers’ previous students come in who was from, she was living in Las Vegas and was a graphic designer, and she was kind of just telling our class what she did, and gave some examples of her work. And for a couple weeks, she made us do like graphic design projects. We had to do like album art and like all these different things that I didn't really recognize as graphic design. But after doing that, I was like, oh, this is kind of a cool avenue of creativity and a profession, and so I kind of went down the rabbit hole of figuring out all the different avenues of graphic design, and became more interested in that, and decided that's what I was going to go to school for.

JOHN: It's a pretty neat career. I mean, you can do a lot with these jobs for sure, but something I think is unique about you three is that you're not kind of just fitting into this one box because you each do other things. Michelle, I was messaging you earlier. You're currently knitting a quilt or stitching together a quilt. I mean, that's amazing, and that really has nothing to do with graphic design. It's just another creative outlet you can use. And then I know Jenna, you are really good at the videography when it comes to like softball and baseball and probably all the sports. You just haven't been here long enough to work through all of them, and then Cameron, you enjoy radio as well. You're trying to start a show here on KVLU, so I think that's pretty cool that you are able to use creativity in different outlets like that as well.

CAMERON: Yeah, I think that's been like the thing that's given me the most passion is trying to find a way to incorporate graphic design into the things that I'm already interested in too, and so for me, that's music and fashion and different cool products.

JENNA: I'll touch on that too. I feel like once I started to really dive into graphic design, I started to notice like it's absolutely everywhere. Everywhere you go, you see some sort of graphic design. Every billboard, every side of the truck, any type of store you go into, every label is graphic design, so it really shows like how much graphic design impacts everything that you do.

JOHN: Yeah, graphic design, advertisement. Think about walking through the aisles at the grocery store, the cereal boxes. I mean, when you were a kid, what jumped out to you-the really colorful ones or the fun characters, right? You know, someone created that. So, okay, let's go ahead and dive into kind of your current work. So, tell us some of the projects that y'all are working on right now.

MICHELLE: So, currently, since we're in the summer season, there a lot of people putting in requests during summer so they can get ready for the incoming semester. And so, it's been a lot of prep work. So, different people want promo items to give to students and staff, different flyers for events that are coming up.

JENNA: Right now I'm also working on some prep stuff for the fall, but also some recap stuff in the spring. So we just finished some all-academic graphics for social media for the spring athletes, some GPA stuff overall in the athletic department. Those will probably be coming out soon, and then also working with different creatives from football and other spring sports, and also incorporating like the ticket office and all the directors of operations, working with parking passes and credentials for the fall. Anything that's really needed in terms of how everything operates smoothly that has a design on it for the fall. And then also coming up with a branding look for football, and then incorporating that throughout all of the fall sports as well, and trying to get prepped as much as possible so that I'm not swamped when football season comes around.

JOHN: It’s funny that both of y'all brought this up. You know, summertime. I think from an outside perspective, people think that things slow down, but for certain roles, things really ramp up because we're preparing for the fall, and that is when everybody wants to get their stuff done. Understandably, right? They go on vacation, but they also want to lock in and get their stuff done. So that's where y'all come in to play. Cameron, what do you have going on right now?

CAMERON: Yeah, someone a couple days ago asked me, "Oh, y'all must be pretty slow right now since it's summer?” And I was like, "No, I actually had a terrible day today because I was really just stressed out and trying to figure out how I'm going to handle all the projects.” And older projects keep coming back that I thought were done, and I just like things to be finished and for them not to come back from the grave, but sometimes it happens. And so right now, working on a coloring book that I'm excited to have roll out going into it. You know, I've never really designed a coloring book before, but I, you know, I found a way to have fun with this one. I kind of I tried to find a way to incorporate just my interest of like vintage design and different elements that would be fun to color in.

JOHN: It looks really good. I saw the little sneak peek.

CAMERON: I'm excited for that to come out. See people color it. I'm excited to color it in myself. But aside from that, t-shirts, flyers, logos, different things. Which I like. I like a variety of stuff.

JOHN: Well, it's got to be neat too to see y'all's work around campus. I mean, Michelle, you've got what are they called? Wall mural canvases. I don't know what y'all call them. Wall wraps.

MICHELLE: Yeah, wall wraps.

JOHN: You've got those all over campus. Jenna, you're about to be all over 17 sports. We didn't even mention that. I mean, you're doing graphic design for 17 sports. It's amazing. And then Cameron, I know you've been a part of big projects as well. So y'all's work is all over the place. It's pretty neat.

CAMERON: Yeah, just today you're wearing a shirt that I designed, and Victor was also wearing a shirt that I designed.

JOHN: Well, would you look at that! This is my favorite shirt, by the way. And I’ve got to give all three of you a shout out and kudos because not only do you have these largely creative roles on campus, but you know it takes a thick skin to be a graphic designer. Sometimes you're going through seven or eight edits, and you're having people critique your work, which we all kind of have that. But it's constant. So to do the work that y'all do takes a thick skin for sure.

CAMERON: It's definitely finding a balance of like being able to take criticism, but also being able to like stand up for what you believe. Because sometimes people will recommend things that you know from your perspective wouldn't be the best choice, or wouldn't be as good of a fit choice as other options. Yeah, you have to know when to speak up and for sure make the changes.

JOHN: It's that creative autonomy for sure. Yeah, you need that. Okay, let's talk about. Do y'all have any favorite projects from your time at ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ? Like Jenna, I think of you're working on some buttons right now, right, for the football season. Anything that comes to mind that y'all really enjoyed during your time here?

MICHELLE: So I'm glad you brought up the wall wraps earlier because I always talk about this one. Like wall wraps and environmental graphics are two of the hardest things that I do because it also involves a lot of math. I'll have to read the like the construction, like the architecture layouts, and read all of the measurements and try to figure out like how is this going to fit in this space. And then we have to collaborate with other people on the project who are doing things like ordering the furniture to make sure that our graphics look good for the furniture. And so recently, I did the engineering building. They renovated the whole second floor, and so I was helping them do all their environmental graphics. And it's just these huge glass boards that they have hung up in the hallway, and all these like little the designs that they put in the windows to represent all the departments. And it's really fun to go in the space now that it's finished and see the fruits of my labor, and then thankfully with The Patio, which is I think it was completed last year, and it's a huge wall. It's a wall wrap over brick, and that one was so fun because I could just be creative and use all these different fun colors that didn't necessarily have to align with our brand, and it was just freestanding, and so that was a really awesome creative project, and I loved to see it.

JOHN: Yeah, and you can-I mean, that one's there out on display when you're walking around campus. It's pretty nice. Yeah, I remember you going through that process too. Like, what do y'all think about these colors? I know a mixture of this, and I'm like, it's pretty cool to have that freedom to create for sure.

MICHELLE: I love having people in the office who I can go and get their opinions. And I'm like, please tell me if this looks cool. I've been looking at it for 11 hours.

JOHN: Been looking at this for half a day, right? Jenna? What about you?

JENNA: You mentioned the buttons. That was a fun little project that I was able to do. Those will be cool to give away in the fall for football and even some other fall sports. It was cool because I got to kind of step away from the brand for a second, still use the colors and all the stuff, but I was able to use different types of fonts, use logos that we might not normally use on a daily basis, really make them look aesthetically like cute, or “cutesy” as some people might say, and then it was fun to get everybody's opinion in the office. Yeah, it was fun to see like how everybody liked those ones. In terms of other projects, I do a lot of social media work, so they kind of just all blend together at this point. I've made like hundreds of graphics at this point, so none of them really stand out. But if I had to kind of be vague, I kind of just like the overall idea of representing the student athletes. I mean, we are at a D1 school, so kind of making them feel represented as a D1 athlete on social media is really awesome.

JOHN: Yeah, and I know I've told you this before. You're building an athletics brand. I mean, like you said, you're preparing for the fall for what'd you say the football theme, or that's all in the branding. So it kind of takes that consistent look, which I think you're building up. You've been here what four months? Yeah. So yeah, definitely keep up the good work for sure. Cameron?

CAMERON: I do enjoy the t-shirt designs. It is cool seeing them in person and before this job, but it wasn't really something I got to do a lot of apparel design, t-shirt design, and so that, and then, as well as flyers, like the flyers that I've done for the Music Department, and just different things on campus. It's cool to take a lot of information, make it in a way that's digestible and something you want to read and something you get information to.

JOHN: Yeah, you want to pick up. And you just took home a first place award at Press Club for a flyer, right? Congrats. Yeah. So that's really cool. Y'all get to see your work all over. Like we said, Michelle, you walk by the mural out on The Patio. Students get to see that, and they're like taking pictures with it all the time. I mean, just some really neat stuff. So let's talk about this. Maybe not the most exciting part of the job, but with all the requests that are coming in, how do folks request items from you all, or graphics, or logos, or what's the process?

MICHELLE: So thankfully, my wonderful boss Amanda made a form that people can fill out that funnels to us. So they'll fill out the form, and they include all of the critical information that we need to complete their project. So that way, we can look at it, digest how long this is going to take, and put it in the schedule, and then we can have a nice draft to send them, and it really helps expedite the design process. Doing it that way, sometimes people will request things from us personally. I would love to be able to just do everyone's request, but sometimes it's not possible, so we try to prioritize things that are going to directly affect things like recruitment.

JOHN: Alright, so thanks again to all three of you for coming on the LU Moment and sharing your story. Like I said, behind the scenes heroes. So thanks for all that you do, and excited to see the work you continue to produce for our campus. Glad to have you on. For our listeners and readers, here's a quick reminder for any incoming students for fall of 2026. Please remember to register for New Student Orientation. There are August dates still available to sign up for, and you can do that by visiting lamar.edu/orientation. Alright folks, that's a wrap on another episode. To catch the LU stories, just like Michelle's, Jenna's, and Cameron's, be sure to search LU Moment wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.