Liliana Tovar - Portfolio

LILIANA TOVAR

INTERIOR DESIGN PORTFOLIO 2026

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

LILIANA TOVAR

My interest in design has remained a constant source of inspiration, expressed through my creative hobbies. From sign writing for local food trucks, to helping paint murals throughout my city, and practicing pyrography, my intentions to create joyful designs started as a way to give back to my community and have since evolved into a vision for my future career. My experiences have fueled my desire to create empathetic environments that foster meaningful interactions and enrich everyday life. As I continue my journey, I hope to contribute spaces that tell stories, strengthen communities, and leave a lasting positive impact. I hope you enjoy my work!

EDUCATION

University of Texas at Austin - Austin, Texas

Bachelor of Science in Interior Design | May 2027

Young Women’s Leadership Academy (High School) - San Antonio, Texas

Class of 2023 | Summa Cum Laude

HONORS & AWARDS

UT Travel Scholarship |2026

Edward J. Perrault Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Interior Design | 2025 - 2026

Debbie Ann Rock Scholarship in Interior Design | 2025 - 2026

UTSOA Textile Design Winner | 2024

LPA Interdisciplinary Diversity Scholarship | 2023 - Present

San Antonio Area Foundation Legacy Scholarship | 2023 - Present

San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame | 2023 - Present

SKILLS

Technical

Revit, Rhino, Enscape, Lumion, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Midjourney

Fabrication

Laser cutting, 3D printing, model-making, sketching

Languages

Fluent - English and Spanish, Elementary Level - American Sign Language

WORK EXPERIENCE

Austin, Texas | lilianat@utexas.edu | www.linkedin.com/in/-liliana-tovar

Brackenridge Park Conservancy | Construction Management Intern | San Antonio, TX | June 16, 2025 - August 9, 2025

Assisted in Nature Playscape presentation, office site furnishings, branding installations, and designed interior wall graphics. Collaborated with local companies like Republic Sign to coordinate production of designs.

Grace PG Design Group | Design Intern | San Antonio, TX | June 13, 2024 - August 9, 2024

Helped with research for presentations to inform design planning in support of a mixed-use development project, learned about RFI’s and submittals while assisting with minor revisions, and organized material sample library.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Undergraduate Architecture Student Council | External Communications Director | June 2025 - Present | Interior Design Liaison | May 2024 - May 2025

Communicate with external organizations and design firms for potential collaborations. Served as the main communication link between the council and the BSID program, keeping students informed of events and updates while advocating for fair representation and collaboration within the School of Architecture.

Ampersand (Interior Design Organization) | Event Coordinator | June 2025 - Present

Organize and manage firm visits, and professional presentations to connect members with industry professionals, and enhance their learning experiences.

SAISD Foundation Ambassador Program | UT Austin Ambassador | August 2025 - Present

Support incoming San Antonio Independent School District freshmen by planning meetups, facilitating engagement activities, and serving as a peer mentor to help them navigate their first year of college.

Architecture/Interior Design Mentor | Mentor | August 2024 - Present

Provided guidance to first year architecture and interior design students by answering technical software questions.

COMMUNITY WORKS

UT Austin Habitat for Humanity | February 2024 - Present

Assist in collaborative teams helping construct, renovate, and repair homes for families in need.

Pollinator Lounge | Brooklyn, New York | May 24 – October 20, 2024

Designed insect habitat for Brooklyn Botanical Garden rest and relax Pollinator lounge. Project was featured in TimeOut’s June list of “Best things to do this weekend in NYC”.

COMMON THREAD

Retail Market Place

Design IV - Spring 2025

Professor Agustina Rodriguez

HINGE HEARTH

Student Housing

Design V - Fall 2025

Professor Ria Bravo

GUIDED PATHWAYS

Garden Multispecies Lounge

Design II - Spring 2024

Professor Nerea Feliz

MEDICI

Café

Design III - Spring 2024

Professor Amy McDonnold

VISUAL FORMS

Analog & Digital Work

Visual Communication II - 2024

Professor Stefan Britts

COMMON THREAD

DESIGN

IV | SPRING 2025

RHINO, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR

This project is an intergenerational retail space that serves as the “Common Thread” bringing people and their pets together. This space redefines the retail experience as a place where the intangible such as knowledge and experiences are exchanged across multiple generations. The space incorporates wall, hanging, and self-standing displays for different types of products. Additionally, offering areas for rest in between shopping kiosks, accessible interactive displays, rest stops for pets, and a distinguishable color palette for color deficiency, this retail space serves people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.

Site is located within the ground floor of an existing building on the East side of Austin, Texas. Nearby establishments place a heavy emphasis on super-market style displays, interior and outdoor connection, and community gathering spaces.

CONCEPT SKETCH

SITE LOCATION

COLOR PALETTE DEVELOPMENT

This color palette was developed with accessibility and wayfinding as primary considerations, emphasizing strong contrast and clear differentiation beyond hue alone. Using a Color Blindness Simulator, the palette was tested under various forms of color blindness to ensure visual clarity. The final scheme supports an inclusive, user-centered retail environment.

GROUND FLOOR AXON

Creamy White Textured Plaster

Gold Metal SheetsCheckout Stations

Perfume Fragrances

Pottery Vases

PRODUCT DISPLAYS

STANDING DISPLAY

SELF-STANDING DISPLAY WALL DISPLAY

HUNG DISPLAY

HINGE HEARTH HOUSING

DESIGN V | FALL 2025

RHINO, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR

This housing project explores portable poche units designed for architecture students, using familiar materials such as cork, wood, and painted surfaces to create an accessible and intuitive living environment. Each unit begins in a compact state and unfolds to occupy a larger footprint, transforming into flexible spaces that can form shared hearths for gathering, presenting, and conversation. While capable of collective use, the units can also be individualized to support rest, focus, and personal retreat. At the ground level, the project is anchored by communal programs including studios, private offices, a print room, café, and indoor–outdoor lounging areas reinforcing a balance between collaborative production and individual habitation.

Walter Webb Hall

UT Tower

Businesses

Apartments

Dorms

School of Architecture

Union/Flawn Center

Religious Institutions

Parking

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Minimum 5 Hours

Minimum 3 Hours

Minimum 1 Hour

Less than 1 Hour

Site drawing is informed by building programs in the area. Depicting personal time spent in nearby buildings in addition to main circulation paths traveled by architecture and design students.

Overlapping circular forms guided plan development, with intersections shaping shared and transitional spaces.

The portable housing poche is developed through manipulated massing to produce potential surfaces and rest opportunities.

FLOOR PLANS

KEY:

A. Student Housing

B. Restrooms/Showers

C. Laundry Room

D. Play & Leisure Room

E. Kitchen

F. Student Lounge

G. Presentation Stage

W 25TH ST

• Unfolded units create flexible pockets of space, forming informal gathering areas for spontaneous interaction.

• These pockets function as a contemporary reinterpretation of the hearth, shifting the idea of “home” toward shared community activity.

• Students can self-organize social hubs for critiques, org meetings, group study, or casual hangouts.

• Modular components allow the space to expand or contract based on group size and activity.

• Visual openness and accessible pathways encourage participation while maintaining clear flow.

• The design promotes collective engagement, emphasizing collaboration, connection, and student-led use of space.

CONCEPT MODELS

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

Two layers of 5/8” Gyp. Bd. (UL Type SCX)

TRANSVERSAL SECTION

ACOUSTIC WALL SECTION

One layer of 5/8” Gyp. Bd (UL Type SCX)

COMMUNAL LAYOUT

GUIDED PATHWAYS

DESIGN II | SPRING 2024

RHINO, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR

This project’s design was derived from the pattern used in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden exhibit. The leaf-like shapes found in the pattern turned into the planters that delineate entrances and pathways for people and insects. Additionally, the planters serve as backrests and barriers of protection between people’s sitting areas and the insect habitats. Visitors follow the arrangement of these planters to navigate through the botanical garden into three main different rest areas composed of irregular polygon shaped seating. Each of these rest areas has a canopy with bee habitats found on the vertical support structures. Along these different pathways there are also stepping stones which serve as play areas for children and potential seating areas. The presentation area is located towards the center of the site and has bleacher-like seats. This area has a canopy for shade, with hanging extrusions that house birds and reflect the abstract nature of the pattern. These extrusions catch people’s attention and invite them to rest and watch the birds, while the curved pathways created by the planters encourage exploration and anticipation of different spaces.

BEE HABITAT DEVELOPMENT

AI Generated Pattern

FINAL MODEL

CONCEPT MODELS

MEDICI

DESIGN III | FALL 2024

RHINO, ENSCAPE, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR

This project improves circulation, seating, and acoustics at a Medici coffee shop in Austin. This Medici Café redesign celebrates experiential moments through framed views created particularly by stairs and aperture’s. The space is subdivided into three floors, the first representing coffee as a performance space, the second as a harmony hub, and the third as a quiet sanctuary. As visitors enter the cafe they are greeted by the heart of this space, the coffee bar, which is placed centrally and acts as a stage where the baristas are performers and customers are the spectators. The second floor has an opening that overlooks the bar, acting as a frame through which customers can continue enjoying coffee making as a performance. The second floor also has a small live music stage that is framed by stairs leading into the third floor. This final space has carefully placed apertures that allow for an acoustic panel to drop down and connect both floors, presenting customers with an introspective experience.

The existing layout presented several circulation challenges. Most notably, the checkout counter was located deep within the space, creating confusion for customers seeking quick purchases. This placement disrupted traffic flow, increased congestion, and increased noise levels.

SECTION A-1

VISUAL FORMS

VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS | 2024

CHARCOAL, RHINO, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR

This project revolves around advanced drawing utilizing both analog and digital methods to ultimately create a model, and capturing the essence of my design thinking process. The beginning stage of the project was a photograph of a building exploring space-defining qualities of light, followed by the recreation of it using a grey scale for different tones. Abstraction of the linework from this piece guided the creation of a new composition. The final digital pattern drawing was a result of experimenting with color palette in Photoshop and lineweights on Illustrator. From this a physical model was generated, communicating a clear relationship to the previous drawings shapes and intersections. This process helped generate discoveries, ideas, and insights on the connection between analog and digital work.

COLOR, ANALOGUE, & DIGITAL DRAWING

LILIANAT@UTEXAS.EDU

www.linkedin.com/in/-liliana-tovar