You’re the Thread
About the Project
-
The University of Florida’s Center for Public Interest Communications aims to encourage students and partners to adopt a public interest communications approach in their work. They do this by conducting workshops and campaigns around evidence-based social change strategies.
-
This project focused on fostering a sense of belonging among individuals within the College of Journalism and Communications. Following the cessation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Florida, the project aimed to enhance students' and facultys’ sense of inclusion and importance within the CJC community.
-
9 postcard-sized designs integrating micro-lesson copy and illustrations or photos
Corresponding stickers/decals
-
Art Director / Lead Designer: Isabel Arnold
Junior Designers: Bari Elliot, Diego Romo
Account Supervisor: Julie Chan
Project Manager: Lisa Gatti
I led this project as a component of my graphic design and art direction co-op with The Agency at UF. To learn more about my experience, click here.
-
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Monday.com
Developing a Creative Strategy
When gathering inspiration, it was important to the client that the project felt authentic and inclusive, avoiding the appearance of “DEI propaganda”.
After presenting 3 different directions to the client, they settled on one that incorporated bold text callouts, metaphorical depictions of diversity and minimalist illustrated shapes.
Inspiration & Visual Research
Inspiration from Client
Flower, School of Fish and Quilt Mockups
Taking inspiration from an image the client shared, we mocked up designs showcasing metaphors representing diversity. We chose to illustrate a school of fish, a bouquet of flowers and a patchwork quilt.
Adapting Through Client Feedback
Following client feedback, we were ready to move forward with the quilt concept. At this point, we put together a more definitive style guide and creative strategy for the project, including finalizing the color palette and fonts.
Finalized Color Palette
Finalized Font Choices
To further develop the quilt concept we incorporated their suggestion of adding texture to the quilt squares to give them a handcrafted feel. We also presented the option of implementing quilted text throughout the deliverables to enhance the stitched aesthetic.
Quilted Text Draft 1
Quilt Squares Draft 1
After additional client feedback, we integrated more hand-stitching into the quilt squares and more texture into the quilted text. A lot of the their feedback at this stage was centered around making the designs feel more handmade and authentic, rather than machine-quilted.
Quilted Text Draft 2
Quilt Squares Draft 2
My Role As Art Director
Quilt Squares Draft 6
Throughout the process, a major part of my role as art director was to give feedback on the designs created by the junior designers before showing them to the client. Though I was hands-on with the design process as well, it was important for me to monitor the quality of work and adherence to our creative strategy.
Read through the feedback I gave on this round of designs below.
the background color needed to be a lighter cream- it was too “yellow” compared to the other colors
text styles and sizes needed to be adjusted to give the designs more room to breathe
the micro lessons needed some sort of aspect to tye the different postcards together
text needed to be a consistent size, style and weight; the body text under the quilted text was bold and overwhelming
Quilted Text Draft 6
Pulling It All Together
To tye all the elements of the micro-lessons together, I created a custom wordmark to integrate the main campaign tagline “you’re the thread” throughout the deliverables. This used stitched lettering, carrying out the clients feedback and desire to incorporate both the quilted squares and quilted text. This wordmark was used for stickers and integrated throughout the postcards.
On the back of the postcards, (see left) I used a sans-serif header for a bold callout, serif body text for better printed readability, and the wordmark and a tagline from the client to tie the postcards together.
Click through all 9 final postcards below.
