Working under the Latin America & Latino Studies (LALS) program meant I was tasked with managing all of our promotions, and often helping out affiliated organizations or co-sponsored events.
To differentiate from program specific material meant for enrollment and program awareness, our event promotions focused less on our tile-set and more on book covers or material provided by the speakers. Emphasis was on prominently showing the date and times of the events. Although, some original personal flairs or unique illustrations would be added in to make the designs standout from amongst a number of competing events filling billboards and student inboxes during the school year.
In fact, the strategy was always to be able to create designs that had impact and visual interest. As many departments and organizations around campus started to adopt Canva for the graphic design needs, most promotional flyers and graphics all started to look similar, so being able to create unique illustrations and layouts really helped the program’s events get attention.
Work was especially plentiful in the 2020-2021 school year as departments took to hosting Zoom events in great number. In time, several organizations sought my work, and it was great to replace most of my hours doing design work over administrative tasks that were voided due to the lack of in-person activity on campus.
An event in particular that stretched my skillset was the annual Plaza de las Américas festival. In 2019 I was tasked with creating flyers, a Bingo game for guests, and a powerpoint with unique graphics for each country.
For 2020, we could no longer host the event in-person as the usual draw of a 500+ crowd was out of the question, so we re-created the feeling of the show online through Zoom. Part project manager, video editor, graphic designer, and stream assistant, I was responsible for editing videos submitted by the community to represent various countries and create transitional graphics between presentations. Each meeting I would prepare a visual graphic to reflect changes in the schedule, missing or priority items, and help a large team visualize what exactly was being done (it was sill early in the school year and many could not wrap their heads around a virtual show). It was tiresome work, and we had a few technical issues that luckily went unnoticed, but it was a success that brought in many people from the campus community to enjoy our hard work.
