The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Graphic Design Intern

Dates: May 2025- August 2025

Location: Greater Williamsburg Area

During the summer of 2025, I worked as a Graphic Design Intern with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I collaborated closely with the Exhibit and Design Department.

The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation is an educational foundation that operates the Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Through immersive exhibits, living-history programs, and hands-on experiences, the foundation brings to life the stories of America’s first permanent English colony and the nation’s founding.

In this role, I contributed to the design of a wide range of print materials such as exhibit text panels, brochures, banners, posters, and signage. I also served as an on-site manager during the installation of exhibit graphics, ensuring that design elements were executed accurately and effectively.

This experience allowed me to sharpen my technical skills in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, while also deepening my understanding of both local and national history through close collaboration with historians, curators, archaeologists, and other museum professionals.

Continue down below to see some of my projects from my time with JYF!

Clara Fernandez standing next to a historical map of York River and Yorktown, with a smaller informational panel beside it, both mounted on a wood-paneled wall.
Logo of Jamestown Settlement featuring a stylized red sailing ship above the text 'Jamestown' in blue cursive and 'SETTLEMENT' in red capital letters.
Group of nine college-aged people standing on a porch outdoors, smiling, with a view of trees and blue sky in the background.
Logo for the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown featuring a silhouette of a bird flying with red stars above it.

Yorktown Pavilion Project- Map of Siege of Yorktown

Deliverables: Large-scale 8’x 4.5’ metal map mounted for outdoor display

Project Overview:

  • Led the redesign and expansion of a historical map depicting the 1781 Siege of Yorktown battalion lines.

  • Extended the existing layout by 12 inches using Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, ensuring seamless integration with the original design.

Key Contributions:

  • Built the Battle Lines Key and added French, American, and British troop positions.

  • Used advanced Photoshop techniques to maintain historical accuracy, scale, and aesthetic consistency.

  • Designed color and line-matched magnetic markers to visualize troop movements during demonstrations.

Skills Highlighted:

  • Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

  • Historical accuracy & visual storytelling

  • Precision design & large-format layout

  • Collaboration with museum design team

Historical map of York River during a battle with colored lines representing different military divisions and ships in the water.

Click on maps to view in larger scale!

A historical map of Yorktown, Virginia, illustrating military line formations and troop movements during the American Revolutionary War with overlaid annotations and descriptions at the bottom.

Yorktown Pavilion Project- Text Panels

Historical poster titled 'A Call to Arms - American Patriots' with a quote from General George Washington. The poster includes a brief history of American Revolutionary War troops and veterans, with a background image of Revolutionary War soldiers in a trench, firing cannons at sunrise or sunset.

    • Designed the interpretive text panel accompanying the Yorktown map — my first signage project for JYF.

    • Collaborated with curators and historians to ensure historical accuracy and interpretive clarity.

    • Developed a cohesive visual identity linking the map and signage through consistent color, typography, and layout.

    • Ordered product through contractor and managed installation of the final panels.

    • Created an interpretive panel installed alongside the map and other pavilion signage.

    • Used Illustrator and InDesign for layout and Photoshop to refine imagery and create a soft fade effect.

    • Integrated historical research and curatorial input to balance accuracy with strong visual storytelling.

    • Highlighted the diverse makeup of Patriot forces, including colonists, free and formerly enslaved Black men, Indigenous allies, and women camp followers.

Text panel with map of Yorktown in 1781 showing the British, French, and American troop positions during the siege, with ships labeled 'York River' in the background.

Click on panels to view in larger scale!

Deliverables: Adhesive vinyl lettering and imagery printed on laser-cut acrylic panels, installed as companion signage for the Siege of Yorktown Map Display

Skills Highlighted:

  • Layout & typographic design

  • Research-based design & content integration

  • Brand and color consistency

  • Collaboration with curators, historians, and contractors

  • Project coordination & installation management

Yorktown Christanna Canon Exhibit-Text Panels

Deliverables: Adhesive vinyl lettering and imagery printed on laser-cut acrylic panels

Project Overview:

  • Final large-scale exhibition project completed for the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

  • Collaborated with curators, conservators, architects, and the museum’s design team to interpret the story of a historic cannon from Fort Christanna.

  • Exhibit explored Native American trade, colonial governance, and cultural exchange in early 18th-century Virginia.

Key Contributions:

  • Incorporated historical imagery and custom graphics, including a digital reconstruction of Fort Christanna created in Illustrator from archival references.

  • Ensured all visuals aligned with curatorial research and historical authenticity.

  • Managed and oversaw product installation, coordinating with production vendors and museum staff.

Skills Highlighted:

  • Adobe InDesign & Illustrator

  • Custom graphic creation

  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration (curators, conservators, architects)

Historical cannon displayed in a museum exhibit with informational panels and a wooden fence backdrop.
Construction workers installing a display of a large wooden fence with a log lying on top in an indoor exhibition space.
  • An indoor scene depicting Indigenous people gathered around a fire, engaging in a communal activity, with some sitting and some standing, in a rustic setting with traditional decor and artifacts.

  • Informational sign about Fort and Governor Spotswood with a portrait of Alexander Spotswood on the right side, dressed in 18th-century attire.

  • Illustration of the layout of Indian School at Fort Christina, with numbered sections and labeled structures such as captain's quarters, barracks, warehouses, well, Indian school, and other features, along with descriptive text about the school's history.

  • Painting of a historical scene inside a wooden log cabin showing indigenous Virginia Indian people engaging in trade with English colonists, with various goods and textiles displayed.

  • A historical trade goods and exchange rates list for barter with items and their values in pounds, including weapons, clothing, and alcohol.

  • Text explaining the history of the Old Spotswood cannon, a 1,400-pound cannon used during Fort Christanna's defense, and its history with the College of William and Mary.

Yorktown Christanna Canon Exhibit- Palisade Mural

Deliverables: Large-scale mural (approx. 6’ high x 5’ wide) installed behind the Christanna Cannon exhibit

Project Overview:

  • Designed a large-scale mural depicting a palisade fence to complement the historical setting of the Christanna Cannon exhibit.

Key Contributions:

  • Used Adobe Photoshop to scale, refine, and extend the mural composition while preserving image clarity and visual integrity.

  • Applied advanced tools including Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Content-Aware Fill, Layer Masks, Smart Objects, and Blending Modes to seamlessly replicate wood textures.

  • Conducted multiple rounds of refinement to ensure balance in tone, scale, and surface detail.

  • Managed and oversaw product installation, ensuring precise alignment and visual cohesion with the exhibit design.

Skills Highlighted:

  • Advanced image editing & digital compositing

  • Large-scale mural design & production

  • Texture creation & environmental realism

  • Precision scaling & layout refinement

  • Exhibit integration & installation management

An antique black cannon displayed on a white platform with a wood fence backdrop.
Interior of a history museum with a sign reading 'Colonial America 1763-1775'. Display of a large, old cannon, a statue of a man in colonial attire, and framed historical images and information panels.

Jamestown Legacy Gallery- Text Panel for Hampton Roads Refugee Relief

Deliverables: Interpretive text panel designed to highlight community outreach and cultural connections

Project Overview:

  • Designed the “Hampton Roads Refugee Relief” panel to showcase the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s partnership with local non-profits and its ongoing commitment to community engagement.

  • The panel connects the Foundation’s modern service initiatives with its mission of celebrating Cultural Diversity — linking the historic convergence of English, Powhatan, and African peoples at Jamestown to present-day acts of inclusion.

Skills Highlighted:

  • Layout design & typography

  • Visual storytelling & cultural interpretation

  • Exhibit branding & consistency

  • Collaboration with community-focused teams

    To support or learn about Hampton Roads Refugee Relief, visit → https://hr3va.org/

A display of toiletries and hygiene products on a table, with information about Hampton Roads Refugee Relief, and a group of people packing donations of toiletries and household supplies at a community center.