sofiachang.myportfolio.com
June 2022 - Present
Design Lead, UCLA Housing Media Team, Los Angeles, CA
• Managing a team of five designers to create professional visuals for UCLA Student Affairs.
• Leading art and design direction for 5+ social media campaigns.
Sep 2019 - June 2022
Graphic Designer, UCLA Housing Media Team, Los Angeles, CA
• Generated professional visuals for UCLA Housing (@uclahousing) social media platforms, totaling approx. 40k total followers
• Developed design directions for social media campaigns leading to approx. 10k increase in total followers.
• Created professional visuals for 10+ UCLA departments and brands
Oct 2021 - Present
Founder and Designer, Shleggwear, Los Angeles, CA
• Founded Shleggwear (shleggwear.com), an independent fashion studio specializing in crochet hats made sustainably.
• Built a social media presence of 39k followers, 9 million views, and 2 million likes across Instagram and TikTok.
• Featured by 20+ press outlets, including E! News, Asian Feed, and VoyageLA.
June 2022 - Aug 2022
Architectural Design Intern, Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City, CA
• Sourced and procured 250 props to immerse guests in steampunk-themed restaurant Toothsome Chocolate Emporium, which opened January 2023.
• Designed layout of all props with CAD and generated a 50 page package, including detailed prop specifications and architectural drawings.
• Organized illustration of 5+ scenic concepts, edited art director boards, and generated mural packages.
Oct 2021 - June 2022
Digital Marketing and Communications Intern, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
• Designed weekly social media promotional graphics viewed by the museum’s approx. 400k followers across platforms.
• Employed information design skills to document 10+ exhibitions, 50+ programs, and 7 executive reports
• Led weekly maintenance of the Hammer’s official website with Drupal.
Sep 2019 - June 2023
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Arts and Architecture
Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies | Bachelor of Arts in Art
GPA: 3.85
clothing the edifice
Winter Technology Seminar - UCLA AUD
Instructor: Mohamed Sharif
Contributers: Sofia Chang, Hiro Chemers
Jan - Feb 2023
Terra Cotta Couture is a project that explores solar shading through a dynamic exterior. The 5-story, freestanding urban tower demands the interplay of architectural elements with environmental concerns.
Architecture and fashion are both constructions that fill the basic needs for protecting the human body. In the project, a series of steel tracks act as a framework for layers of “outerwear” and “innerwear” louver panels. Insulated glass lies between these layers, mediating the surface and the frame.
With the changing of seasons, louvers can adapt. The corbeled baguette louver model provides variation in profile and opacity. Other models, like the twisted or diamond louvers, provide differences in levels of sunlight and shadow play.
Like clothing, Terra Cotta Couture is activated and animated by the user. Its cantilevered structure provides the “wearer” with shade in the summer and sun in the winter. A symbiotic relationship is formed.
Top: Diagram of louver system
Fall Studio - UCLA AUD
Instructor: Katy Barkan
Contributers: Sofia Chang Sep - Dec 2022
House in a House is a project that confronts the dichotomy between live and work through the allegory of warp and weft.
In the “fabric” of House in a House, live acts as the warp (the lengthwise grain), while work acts as the weft (the crosswise grain). Warp runs up and down, providing a basis for the looser and more giving weft threads. Live and work intersect via perpendicular modules that meet at important thresholds.
A sidedness is revealed- walls shared between modules create an ambivalence between inside and outside.
To produce a self-sufficient structure, it is necessary for live and work to be bound together. When bound together, the structure combines the individual qualities of live and work and acquires new qualities representative of the whole.
a steampunk props package
Summer Architectural Design Internship - Universal Studios Hollywood Universal Studios Creative Placemaking Team
June - Aug 2022
Opened January 27, 2023
I created a props package for the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Milkshake Foundry at Universal Studios Hollywood, now open. Toothsome is a steampunk-themed restaurant that centers around the story of Penelope Toothsome, a tinkerer during the British Industrial Revolution who wants to share her love and knowledge of chocolate with the world.
With this project, I:
• Sourced and procured ~250 props to immerse guests in the experience of a reallife, steampunk chocolate factory.
• Designed layout of all props with CAD, generating a 50 page package with detailed prop specifications and architectural drawings.
• Organized illustration of scenic concepts, edited art director boards, and generated designs for murals throughout the facade.
I divided my process into 5 phases- research, conceptualization, sourcing, drafting, and procuring. I divided the props as well into 4 categories- sculptures, gadgets, wall art, and Penelope’s Office. This amounted to approximately 60+ pieces of wall art and 200+ gadgets and sculptures.
Top: Host Station Menu Case Diagram
Elevation of Penelope’s Office- a scene I had the opportunity to layout, design, source, and procure props for. Penelope’s Office is a solution to a head clearance problem, blocking the area beneath the main stairs lower than 6’8.” I imagined Penelope’s Office as a space for her to draft chocolate recipes and designs for Toothsome, surrounded by things she’s brought back from her travels.
Wall Art Diagrams
Wall Art after installation. A selection of 20+ different frames created by Willging Framing. Approximately half of the art was sourced vintage, and the other half created from references- printed and aged by the Universal team. I plotted several drafts of the artwork, pinning it up on site to get feedback from team members.
32
OF CORNERS
an allegory for luxury
Contextual chunk render.
Spring Technology Seminar - UCLA AUD
Instructor: Georgina Huljich
Contributers: Sofia Chang
Mar - June 2023
Miu Miu Aoyama is a luxury retail buiding in Tokyo, Japan. In this project, I wanted to examine the architectural typology of the building and its relationship to the high fashion brand.
I selected the corner of the building, where unfolding and flush steel plates meet, to study as a chunk. Research allowed me to create a 10x10 foot chunk containing construction elements true to the original building.
The straight lines and sharp edges present in my chunk are bold- they relay playfulness through texture and interaction between perpendicular planes. I wanted to subvert this playfulness by transforming the chunk into a curved object, looking through a lens in which straight lines curve and sharp angles soften.
My final chunk is a curved, semiotic object that feels constantly in flux. It is representative of Miu Miu and its creator Miuccia Prada’s philosophy- it’s a symbol constantly in motion.
a ribbon framework
Winter Studio- UCLA AUD
Instructor: Regina Teng
Contributers: Sofia Chang, Areeba Naeem
Jan - Mar 2022
Oval Form (Trezion) is a bronze, biomorphic sculpture by Barbara Hepworth that sits in the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA. The sculpture invokes the sensesmoments of folding and draping define its shape, producing a ribbon-like figure when unrolled. Out of 72 sculptures, only 6 of them are by female artists or artists of color.
My partner and I were inspired by Oval Form to design a circulatory and user-friendly student arts building. A focus on movement by innovating upon traditional forms of circulation allows spaces designed for circulation to double as gallery spaces. The structure aims to be accessible to all
users by providing simple access to indoor and outdoor space. A ribbon-like framework loops around the user as they experience different aspects of the circulation.
The selection of sculptures present in UCLA’s sculpture garden evidently excludes many members of society. As such, we wanted to design an inclusive and accessible student arts space inspired by female artist Hepworth’s sculpture. We hope that the various twists and turns, along with elements of unrolling and unfolding, allow all visitors to immerse themselves in their experience and foster their creativity.
