Welcome to Sam I Am Designs.
Sam stands for Sarah A. Martinez, the three letters a nod to family as well as my initials. I am a graphic designer born and raised in Austin, Texas. Though I’ve lived in Austin most of my life, I spend most of my time on the outskirts driving around the hill country area to visit small towns for market days, and festivals. If not, I’m watching movies or visiting libraries and museums.
I am currently earning an MFA in Design within the School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin, with an emphasis on interactive design, storytelling, and graphic design.
My interest in design stems from a plethora of animation I watched as a child. The diversity of shapes in characters and background peaked my curiosity on how a designer can convey the most amount of information in a small amount of detail. My favorite example is from the Disney Pixar movie Up, where viewers understand Russel and Carl Fredericksen (the main characters) do not get along because of their shapes, at their basic level, are a circle and a square. Because of my love of animation, I strive to design with motion and flow in mind.
Since 2016, I’ve taken an interest in design systems, specifically how they translate from print, to digital, and to displays. It is a narrative that should flow as seamlessly as animation. Repetitive content across mediums runs the risk of stilted stories, so it’s important to modify designs to accommodate the needs of differing platforms and ensure novelty and interest in a designed system or campaign.
In my ten years of professional work, I’ve had an opportunity to expand my skills greatly. I’ve worked on flyers, brochures, print and digital campaigns, emails, and mobile ads. I’ve been a content creator and managed social media for non-profits, businesses, and state agencies. I have aided Art Directors in photo shoots, and even directed small scale shoots. Since 2017, I’ve written scripts, directed, and edited videos for non-profit campaigns and instructional videos for state agencies. I quality control any print collateral before they go out to the printers and is the go-to person for rush projects.