Our Story
Our Story
Prop Up was founded in 2024 after we began working with researchers and noticed a gap in personal branding and communication support for researchers. Great science is being done every day, but communicating its value beyond a paper, lab, or conference can be a challenge. We created Prop Up to help bridge that gap.
Our logo reflects that idea. Inspired by the tangram, a puzzle made from simple geometric pieces that can be rearranged into countless forms, it represents how we approach every project: looking at the pieces, understanding the problem, and finding a creative way to bring them together. Research, audience, message, visuals, and strategy may all begin as separate elements. Our role is to help shape them into a communication system that makes sense for you and the scientific community you want to reach.
We believe in creating partnerships with scientists, researchers, and professionals who want to increase awareness, build meaningful connections, and strengthen their public presence around their work. Through branding, websites, digital strategy, social media, SEO, and scientific graphics, we help shape the way research is seen, understood, and shared.
Prop Up is a small, founded, and operated business. We believe that being small allows us to stay closely connected to every project, listen carefully, and build collaborative relationships with the people behind the research. Our work is personal, flexible, and shaped around the individual needs of each scientist, lab, or organization we partner with.
Over the years, our work has connected us with projects in coral reef conservation, bird conservation, workforce education, and the scientific diaspora, giving us the opportunity to communicate science across disciplines, audiences, and communities.
Our goal is not simply to make your work look great. We want your science to spark an amazing conversation.
Prop Up is a fully insured professional business and an approved vendor for Penn State University, UCLA, and the University of Georgia.
Ana Saborio is the founder and creative designer behind Prop Up. With more than 18 years of experience in design and marketing and nearly six years focused on science communication, Ana helps researchers transform complex ideas into clear, engaging, and professional visual stories.
Her work combines website development, SEO, social media strategy, digital content, personal branding, and scientific graphics to help scientists build a stronger public presence. From developing a research website and defining a personal brand to creating visuals for conferences, publications, and digital platforms, Ana works closely with researchers to make their science easier to understand, recognize, and remember.
At Prop Up, her goal is simple: help great science communicate as strongly as the research behind it.