Clay Mastin ’22 believes the valuable internship experience he benefited from last summer, along with an enjoyable senior capstone project this year at Marietta College, put him in a strong position when he began his job search.
Mastin, who will join more than 215 other Marietta College students at the 185th Commencement ceremony that starts at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, May 7th, was able to secure his first full-time job as a graphic designer/marketing specialist with Revolution Mortgage in Columbus, Ohio.
“I will be improving their apparel design for their marketing department, as well as creating marketing materials to continue to market their brand through social media,” he said.
Mastin gained valuable experience in this area as he designed and printed unique patterns and designs for football accessories as part of his senior art capstone.
“The designs were for things like headbands, arm sleeves, and leg sleeves, as well as printing patterns for shirts, sweatshirts and shorts,” said Mastin, who played wide receiver for the Marietta College football team. “I have developed a love for streetwear brands and wanted to bring that inspiration into athletics. My new role at Revolution Mortgage will partly be designing and improving their clothing line and designing creative photoshoots to market the apparel on social media.”
Last summer, Mastin completed internships with SteelBridge Labs and NuMoola. SteelBridge is an incubator for start-up companies, and NuMoola is a software company. Both are in Pittsburgh.
“I assisted with social media and made graphics,” he said. “It was amazing because I stayed in Marietta over the summer and went to Pittsburgh once a week. I got to experience that big-city feel a little bit. I would go to the city and eat and walk around and then go into the office the next day.”
With NuMoola, he helped design pieces for the company’s app.
“Marietta College has allowed me to grow as a person and as a designer,” Mastin said. “The small staff to student ratio created an interactive and collaborative environment for me to learn many skills as a graphic designer. The staff, experiences, and resources on campus have prepared me for a full-time role as a designer.”
Mastin will earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Graphic Design.
“Clay has been an exceptional student and employee,” said Sara Rosenstock, McCoy Professor of Graphic Design. “He is conscientious and always follows up with questions to clarify feedback and instructions — he is ultimately very curious about things and is eager to experiment and push his abilities past the expected.”
Mastin is thankful for the Graphic Design professors who helped him develop his skills.
“They are so helpful. They are preparing you for the real world and they want to do everything they can to help you,” he said. “They will do everything in their power to set you up for success.”