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Team design competition among junior visual communication students to create a campaign for ASU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration.
After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop
Team design competition among junior visual communication students to create a campaign for ASU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration.
After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop
My junior year studio team of four was the most diverse in the class. We had different ethnicities, backgrounds, sexual orientations, beliefs, even design styles. As we worked together we discovered diversity was our biggest strength. We challenged each other with unique perspectives and ideas, and it helped us to grow as people, teammates, and designers. When we were tasked to design a campaign for the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration, we immediately got excited. As we sat together brainstorming potential themes, my teammate had a lightbulb moment, looked around and said “Diversity is Us.”
The theme “Diversity is Us” went on to encompass Arizona State University as a whole. As our charter says, we are “defined by who we include… not by who we exclude.” Since the campaign was for a campus celebration, it had to follow ASU brand guidelines. My design using the school’s signature gold box with black type was chosen for our final theme. I opted for simplicity so the focus would be on the heart of our campaign: the people.
For our video, I watched hours of ASU content and used media from campus to capture the school’s diversity. I chose music that was uplifting and inspirational, so viewers would walk away feeling empowered and confident in the school’s commitment to celebrating our differences.
One of the most important events hosted by ASU is the MLK March on West that dates back to 1991. The annual march is meant to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and to understand the history-changing 1963 March on Washington. Each group was given a budget with the task to create collateral, of their choosing, for the event.
My team decided on a banner to lead the procession. To make it more personal and meaningful, I suggested to have markers at the event so people could write their own definitions of diversity on the banner before the march. This concept ended up being one of the judges favorites, and helped us achieve finalist status.
The final event is the ASU Breakfast Celebration; an invitation only ceremony recognizing grade school student’s essays and posters about or relating to Martin Luther King, Jr. Teams were required to design t-shirts and bookmarks that would be given away to those in attendance.
The front of our bookmarks complemented our banner design and highlighted some of the words in our “Diversity is Us” video. The back accentuates the student’s drawing and has only minimal, clean typography consistent with our theme and ASU’s brand.
