Visual Identity System
Untitled: 2024 Grad Showcase
The Bachelor of Design program hosts an annual competition to design the brand identity for the graduating class’s year-end showcase. This year’s design brief was left open to interpretation, with little guidance beyond representing the graduates themselves and the show title: Untitled. Untitled reflects the undefined, something full of potential, and free from restrictions. The show branding kept versatility and customizability at the centre of its design. Experimental mark-making techniques and a modified RGB colour palette were used to reference the graduates journey from a traditional to a digital design space. The patterns created were inspired by the graduate’s portfolios, bringing each personality into the show’s branding. The Untitled visual identity was created in collaboration with Fiona Cruickshank.
The Challenge
The graduates provided the show name, Untitled, and some direction on their style and vision. Our objective was to gain an understanding of the graduating class and the purpose of the showcase. Develop a visual identity, promotional and web materials, wayfinding, personal IDs, photography and illustration examples to use for the showcase. This included a variety of deliverables that were presented in print and digital form to the graduating class. The deliverables included:
-
Social media graphics
-
Name tents
-
Personal IDs
-
Business Cards
-
Graphic Toolbox
-
Motion graphics for social and web use
-
Wayfinding
-
Promotional posters
-
Welcome poster
The Concept
Fiona and I worked collaboratively on each deliverable, from inception to execution. First brainstorming separately, then coming together to meld our ideas into a uniform vision. Our concept put the graduates at the center of the design, ensuring all elements could be used individually, and combined to represent the group. The following three goals were at the centre of this design:
-
Capture the diverse styles and personalities of the graduating class and create a system with versatile elements that can be customized to suit each graduate.
-
Incorporate traditional and digital mediums summarize the graduate’s journey.
-
Avoid repeating previous or existing grad show designs and ideas
Project Background
The project was inspired by the graduate’s design work. Extensive research was conducted on their portfolios and websites to determine commonly used design characteristics and themes. All designers seem to appreciate sans-serif typography over serif, grid-based design, and vibrant colour palettes. The graduates were also interviewed during the design process and helped shape the final system. We also investigated other events and media that used “Untitled”, such as abstract artwork, and took inspiration from there.
The primary audience was the 2024 graduating class themselves. The secondary audience included:
-
Industry professionals
-
Friends and Family
-
Faculty and alumni
-
Students
Therefore, the imagery was kept mature, to function well for a networking event.
The Process
Mark making created different textures and patterns, then applied these to silhouettes and grids to create multiple dynamic layouts that worked just as well apart as they did together. The software and tools required to achieve this included:
-
Traditional mark-making techniques
-
Adobe Photoshop
-
Adobe Illustrator
-
Adobe Aftereffects
-
Adobe InDesign
Results
The resulting visual identity was vibrant, yet clean. The versatility and the customizability of the project appealed greatly to the graduating class. It was presented to the graduating class, and received second-place in the selection process.
Browse my Portfolio
click the arrows to browse, click the image to learn more about a specific project
