Context
The Cavalier Daily is the independent student-run daily at the University of Virginia, UVA's oldest collegiate daily and Charlottesville's oldest newspaper. My work with CavDaily is based on observation - watching how students move through campus life, respond to events, and have common collegiate experiences. Through this observation, I found a key insight: college students feel isolated and lonely in an increasingly digital world, but find a sense of belonging in shared experiences.
Each cartoon distills this universal truth into a visual story by capturing those small, everyday moments.​​ While my tone is often light, the goal is to bring our college campus together by creating work that resonates with all UVA students and cultivates community.
My Role
​As a Senior Associate Cartoonist, I create original editorial cartoons for publication and oversee the other 8 cartoonists on the team. My role involves contributing monthly work, maintaining a shared tonal and copy standard, and providing feedback to ensure structure across the section.
​
Working within this fast-paced, editorial environment requires balancing creative expression with responsibility and creating work that is timely and high-quality.
Process & Craft
My cartoons follow a mixed, hands-on process from ideation to execution. ​
​
I begin each piece by hand, sketching various ideas intuitively. From there, I refine and finalize the work digitally using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop, depending on the needs of the illustration
​
This hybrid approach allows flexibility throughout the design process. Across all cartoons, I focus on establishing a recognizable visual language and a consistent tone within the copy, so the work feels cohesive even as topics and times change.
Below are a few early ideations and sketches of published cartoons.
Published Work
Specific themes range from iconic moments - like a fourth-year's last first-day-of-class to the Charlotte, North Carolina for the 2025 ACC championship - to relatable annoyances like midterm weeks.
​
Click through my 11 cartoons published by The Cavalier Daily.
December 2025
September 2025
August 2025
August 2025
April 2025
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2024
Key Considerations
-
Communicating ideas quickly in an editorial context
-
Balancing humor with a clear message
-
Maintaining a consistent tone across visuals and copy
-
Responding to timely moments
Reflection
This experience taught me that resonant creative work requires observation and close attention to context. Serving in this leadership role taught me how to design visuals that communicate clearly the second they're seen and how a consistent brand voice and tone establishes brand trust.