Caption: Logo for Carnegie Mellon's Activities Board. We hold events for the Carnegie Mellon University community :~)
Activities Board Posters
2019 - 2020 Academic Year
The Activities Board is Carnegie Mellon's largest programming board, hosting free events for all students that range from concerts to paint nights and everything in between. With an operating budget of over $350k, the Activities Board aims to better the CMU student experience one event at a time.
During the 2019-2020 school year, I chaired the Publicity Committee, the team in charge of marketing and publicizing the 20+ events we have every year. This page showcases some of the posters I've made throughout my time in the Publicity Committee.
My Role
As Publicity Chair, I worked with six assistant chairs in three committee subteams: design, marketing, and web development. Though most of my time was spent working with the team to ensure that marketing needs were being met, I got a chance to make some posters as well. Creating these posters on Photoshop and Illustrator gave me an opportunity to experiment with color, layouts, and typography, developing my graphic design skills.
Posters
Below displays select posters I've made throughout the year shown in reverse chronological order.
Takeaways
Creating posters is tough but the process of choosing the energy/message the poster should give off, the layout, the colors, and the typography was really rewarding. Given just a media kit, I did my best to create an experience and through it all, I learned that:
- It is easier to iterate through ideas: When I made posters for the first few events in the fall, I tried making my first iteration my only iteration. I quickly found myself having many thought blocks, confused as to where continue and where to go with my ideas. Sketching my ideas out, first on paper and then digitally before making my final iteration made the process so much smoother.
- Design is a team effort: The chairs I worked with often have color schemes and layouts in mind. Bouncing ideas and talking through needs and specifications enabled the design to best represent the overall message of the poster.
If I were to make posters in the future, whether it be for an Activities Board event or not, I would be more adventurous with typography, experimenting more with serif and monospace fonts when appropriate.