Ailyn Pestana took a graphic design class in high school and never looked back. We talked with Harvard Business School’s graphic designer about her role, what she likes to do outside of work, and how she connects with her Venezuelan heritage.
Josh, Maggie, and Ailyn.
What does your work look like day to day?
Every day is a little different. I manage lots of projects for different people and departments across the School. That can be anything from social media posts to banners and posters that people need for events or annual reports—all sorts of things to market the School in different ways. I also work on the website, which right now is in a big migration to a new design system. I manage our photography resources, hiring photographers for events or photo shoots, art directing photo shoots, uploading everything into our database and making sure we’re storing our photography in different places. Those are the big buckets of what I do.
What are your favorite aspects of your role?
I love getting to be creative—imagining different things and putting them together. It's fun to get to work with James [Aris, creative director], getting his feedback and going back and forth over what I can improve and what will work best. It’s great to get a bunch of content, look at it and think about the best way to get the message across, and then make those edits and changes to the original content and explore doing it in different ways to get closer to the goal. It’s always great showing clients what they asked for and then showing them a different solution that I thought might work better, and have them say “Oh yeah, that makes more sense!” That’s the fun part of it!
Have you always been creative?
No, I always say it was sort of a fluke. Going into high school we had to pick our electives—we had three choices, and I had no idea what graphic design was and just added it as my third option. I got into the class, much to the anger of all the seniors because it was the most coveted class and freshmen never got into that class—it was a complete glitch and I was the only freshman. Lots of people were upset about it! My teacher was the best and we became very close, she really guided me. I got very into the yearbook, which we did from scratch, and I was the editor starting my sophomore year. Ever since then it’s been graphic design.
What was your career path?
I went to Northeastern, and during the co-op program I was at Boston Beer Company. I got a job there while I was still at school, so I went to school full time and worked full time for a year. I had that job coming out of college, was there for a while—it was a lot of fun. I then went to a studio type setup vs. an in-house design team—and I hated it. I came here to get back into in-house design. I feel like in-house design teams are working towards the same goal and there’s a lot more room for collaboration. It feels more positive. I’ve been here for six years.
What makes you happy outside of work?
My family, my friends, my Maggie—my chocolate lab mix, she’s the best. And Barre3, which is a workout space that I just love. I like going for hikes, traveling, and being outside. During Covid I picked up a morning routine, which has been really helpful to center me for the day (though anyone who rides in the car with me would say otherwise!). I like to start with a little meditation and then I journal—one of the most important parts of that is a list of distractions vs. desires: my goals, what’s going to distract me from those goals, trying to get off social media and TV—it’s been really helpful. Then I spend an extra five to 10 minutes in bed with Maggie before starting my day, then I read a couple of newsletters about how to center yourself and some motivational quotes. Whenever I can, I try to take Maggie out for a walk before I leave, then I get in the car and there’s traffic and those two hours go to waste!
My husband’s favorite thing to do is go brewery hopping, so that’s a big thing we do together. I had beer training at Boston Beer Company—how it’s brewed and the different kinds. At the time my husband wasn’t that interested but he’s since come to love beer. We’ve been to the actual Oktoberfest in Munich, and this year we’re trying to check out all the ones in the area to see which one is most like the real thing.
Where did you grow up?
I’m originally from Venezuela, and came to the US when I was eight. I grew up mostly in Westwood, MA.
What do you remember from your childhood in Venezuela, and how do you connect with that heritage?
I remember being with my family all the time—we were super close. We’d go to the beach almost every weekend; I miss that very much. It was so special to grow up with all my cousins, and having a big family that was really close. We still have a very close family. I grew up with two of my cousins as basically sisters. I’m the middle child with them, but an only child with my mom so I get the best of both worlds. My mom, her sisters, and all their kids—it’s a big crew, so our Thanksgiving has about 20 people. It’s great. It’s really nice to always have people and it feels full all the time—I always have people to call on. Two of my cousins work here!
How I connect now is through food and music and keeping a lot of traditions alive with my family. My aunt is coming up this year from Miami to teach us our grandmother’s recipe for hallacas, which is a Christmas dish that we eat in Venezuela. They’re similar to tamales, a dough stuffed with a mix of chicken, beef, pork, garbanzos, olives, and raisins, wrapped in plantain leaves. It’ll take all day and be all-hands-on-deck but I’m really excited to learn. Everyone is coming to my house—it’ll be a lot of fun. Arepas are probably what I make to connect with my Venezuelan roots the most—I have so many arepas in my life!
Tell us about your role in the Latinx Staff Affinity Group.
I joined leadership last year. We try to come up with programming to bring the community together and grow our knowledge individually and across the School. We have lots of things coming up—events for Hispanic Heritage month, and a recent LinkedIn social media training where we offered professional headshots and talked about how to revamp LinkedIn to show more about the work they do at the School. I have connected with so many people across the School through this group. It’s been great to learn new things about different departments, and find new ways to collaborate and just get to know new people.
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