Office of Student Life and Cultural Centers:
25th Anniversary Branding
The Office of Student Life and Cultural Centers at California Polytechnic University of Pomona aims at creating an inclusive and educational space for students to learn about world culture and self identities with peers. The cultural centers consist of: African American Student Center, Womxn's Resource Center, Asian & Pacific Islander Student Center, Pride Center, Native American Student Center, and the Cesar Chaves E Center for Higher Education. 2020 marks the 25th anniversary for this community.
Concept:
The clients requested that a tree should be used in the materials because that is the icon for the centers. I decided to take it a step further. Rather than placing a tree in every marketing material, I wanted to focus on the roots of a tree and how they can stretch out and down affecting the surrounding environment. Since the poster was the first thing to come out of production for the public, I wanted all materials to look like siblings to it rather than identical pieces.
1st Question: How do I visualize celebration?
When I work on projects, I always like to ask myself questions before I begin drawing. I do word maps, mind maps, research synonyms, interviews, etc. While it may take some time away from the project, I find doing this helps me stray away from visual cliques or drives me to consider options outside the realm of commonality. From my note taking, I came across the idea that people feel depressed or unengaged with life due to the pandemic. I wanted people to feel visual engaged and happy.
Happiness + Celebration = Party
I wanted the media to remind people of a childish birthday party décor, specifically the over use of colorful confetti. So I created a background that looked like confetti. The concept would be the tree, but the confetti background will be the main indicator that this is OSLCC. The background is what established the visual identity for the celebration.
Question 2: How does this work with the tree concept?
OSLCC's is associated with imagery such as leaves and roots which are parts from a tree. The clients were interested in using a graphic of a tree, but I wanted to focus on one aspect of the tree so that it is not just a plain illustration. I wanted to focus on the roots of the tree because of hold the organization is. The emotion is focused in the curves of the roots. The more stable the roots, the more stable the tree will be in the future.
Main poster announcing the 25th Anniversary has arrived to Cal Poly Pomona 11"x17"
OSLCC Timeline
The clients were interested in keeping the pattern for all the marketing materials because of how vibrant and eye-catching it is. One item the clients requested was a timeline about the Cultural Centers; humble beginnings to contemporary. The timeline would be placed on Instagram. The clients wanted the timeline to tell a story rather than just tell information. My idea was to tell a story through colors, infancy to maturity.
The color scheme starts with yellow which is considered the color of infancy and new hope. It then shifts to a light yellow-orange because that is when the center begins changing it's overall purpose at the university. Orange is considered the color of change and transformation. Around the 90's is when OSLCC begins to start becoming a huge part of the college culture as it starts making the campus feel LGBTQ+ friendly. It was also the years when the Native American Student Center opens. As the timeline comes closer to 2020, it starts to become more saturated to resemble of how passion and commitment fueled the longevity of the centers.
The OSLCC Champions
Another element OSLCC wanted to add to their social media campaign was these shoutout posts. These posts were meant to honor cultural center advisors and Cal Poly Alumni that have influenced the development of the Cultural Centers. I created the photographic covers for the posts, then a template for the editor to add the body copy.
One asset I enjoyed making was a podcast cover. During our meetings we would just chat about things outside of work just to break the tension and they discussed with me about making a podcast, but did not have a graphic for it. After the major assets were completed, I sent them a possible podcast cover they could use. The clients liked it and used it for their podcast series OUR ROOTS which discusses the history of the cultural centers as well as discussions and interviews with figures in the Social Justice scene.
Thank you!
