UW EAU CLAIRE HOUSING DESIGNS
Social Media Posts
A large part of my time at UWEC Housing was spent designing social media posts. With a limited budget and an an audience of young adults, social media was one of our most effective forms of advertising. Posts would be made on both Instagram and Facebook. I decided to utilize the universities color scheme of blue and gold in a subtle way. Instead of the bright glaring yellowish-gold and bright dark blue typically used, I went with pastel and neutral hues of blue and gold. This style is more relevant to the style of generation Z and millennials. Most of the posts where informational and therefore text heavy. In order to combat this I utilized different strategies to separate the heavy blocks of text.
Posters:
Another aspect of this job was creating posters to display in different halls and campus spaces. Posters were created for student organizations and the Housing department itself. Different styles were used based on the events and requests. Each poster was 11" x 17" in size and printed via the university printing services in full color. Posters were a great way to catch students attention who maybe didn't have social media. Areas the posters were displayed in were the hall lobbies, cafeteria, and student union.
T-Shirt Designs:
A rather fun part of my time at UWEC was designing T-shirts for students, staff, and alumni. Every summer UWEC offers housing for "snowbirds" or retired people who stay in a warmer climate for the winter and return to Wisconsin for the summer. I was in charge of creating T-shirts to help promote this program. During my first year working at UWEC the pandemic struck and the housing department decided to dedicate a hall specifically for quarantine students. As a pick-me-up the department decided to create lighthearted T-shirts for students to receive after quarantining on campus. I was tasked with developing the design. I took inspiration from vintage college T-shirts in order to create a memorable and timeless design.
Smithsonian/UWEC Housing Collaboration:
The Bias Inside Us Poster Series
I was able to be a part of a wonderful collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and the Smithsonian. This was a traveling exhibition featured at different colleges entitled "The Bias Inside Us". The exhibition focused on discouraging internal bias and spreading awareness. I was assigned to create a series of posters were centered around classism. It was my intention to educate students about classism and how to prevent this bias from corrupting how we view others. I was never given specific written material to include on each of the 10 poster designs I was assigned, so I had to develop my own content. I spent a lot of time doing research and reading over scholarly articles to make sure I represented the term accurately.
I poured over all of the materials given to me from the Smithsonian and clicked through the online Bias Inside Us exhibit numerous times in order to capture the intended message accurately. Each of my posters has its own set of visuals specific to the written content. I drew all of these designs following the established style and color palette the exhibit already had. I had a lot of fun illustrating these quirky geometric figures as it’s very different from my usual style. I think they have a lot of personality and fit in well with the exhibits online exhibition. These posters were printed at 11" x 17" and displayed around the university