Senior Spotlight: FLUX President, Jonathan Rodriguez

Written by Miha Palancha. Photography by Miha Palancha.

Jonathan Rodriguez took a motion design class for fun and almost had a career crisis.
Rodriguez is a User Experience (UX) Design senior, president of SCAD’s UX club (FLUX), and soon-to-be UX designer at Adobe in New York City.
Like many creatives, Rodriguez didn’t arrive at UX Design through a straight line — in fact, the road was full of detours, trial runs and one very honest realization: “I loved animation, but I hated drawing the same thing over and over.” While originally interested in SCAD’s animation program, it was during a campus visit that UX caught his eye instead. “It just made sense. I love graphic design and problem-solving. UX combined both and added a little bit of coding and research, which felt like the perfect mix.”

As a senior, Rodriguez has now found his rhythm in the world of UX. But the journey started earlier, at a tuition-free after school arts program in high school. “All my friends were at sports practice. I was in this little studio just making stuff: posters, augmented reality experiments, learning Photoshop and Illustrator. That was the beginning.” The community aspect of that program stuck. “They really focused on building a space where youth could explore possibilities. That experience shaped everything. It made me realize how important community is in design.”

Community continues to be a thread running through his work. “UX isn’t just about solving problems. It’s about who you’re solving for. Behind every interface is a user, but more than that, there’s a community. Whether it’s designing a product or organizing a club event, I think a lot about who it’s impacting.”

As president of the UX club, Rodriguez has spent the last few years fostering that same spirit: creating a space for younger students to explore, collaborate and grow. But he hasn’t stopped exploring either. “If I had discovered motion design earlier, maybe I’d be in a different place.” He recently took a motion design class with professor Matthew Van Rys, which sparked a new love for Adobe After Effects. “It was so fun. I still don’t know if I’d jump ship completely, but motion is definitely staying with me.”

When asked about inspiration, he lit up. “My Adobe mentor introduced me to this blog called Subtraction.com. It’s from the early 2000s, super old, but full of design history and thought pieces. It reminds me that a lot of the things we’re figuring out now have been explored before. There’s value in digging deep, in knowing what came before.” Add to that a healthy scroll through design Twitter and the occasional rabbit hole into old projects, and it’s clear that curiosity is a big part of Rodriguez’s creative engine.

As he prepares to graduate, one class stands out among the rest — Interactive Product Design (UXDG 340). “That class pushed me to think in systems, not just screens. It was challenging, but really rewarding.”

With a strong foundation, a thriving community and an eye toward the future, Rodriguez is ready for what’s next, even if it means occasionally dabbling in motion design again.