Project Description
Case Study
UW Dance Company
Head of Social Media & Graphic Designer
August 2018 – August 2019
Background
The University of Waterloo’s Dance company is a student run club that brings together dancers that trained at different studios to continue their dance practice in the university setting while competing against other universities.
I had been a member of the team for a year before obtaining this role.
Problem
The company needed to drive user engagement and give them a fresh new look and feel that reflects their energy and style.
My Role
Re-brand the Dance Company and promote the team.
Create brand guidelines, and use that to create brand awareness through social media as well as a presence on campus.
Team: 5 executive members to report back to and help make decisions
Skills
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Davinci Resolve
Process
Rebrand
After being in the UW dance company for a year I understood the team and their competitors. I began by sketching out ideas and concepts. I think of our team as bold, audacious, and bursting out the seams with passion. These qualities call for bold and sharp text and shapes. With this, I wanted a high contrast from the black and white, along with our school colour yellow. I then digitized many of them in Illustrator. After narrowing it down, covering and expanding ideas. These 6 logo designs were presented to the rest of the executive team in hopes to decide on one final design. As a group we decided and went forward with a logo design, that allowed me to finish up the other branding materials.
Promotion
Next step was promoting the team, creating posters and social media posts. The first project was gathering incoming students that have dance experience to audition for the team. I created promotions and added them to facebook groups of incoming students. I spent time scouting dancers through their introduction posts in these incoming student facebook groups and commented on their posts. I also put together a few punchy videos highlighting our tricks and talented dancers to grab the attention of our viewers throughout the year using Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve. I designed programs for our showcase, weekly posters for our drop in sessions, a banner for our fundraiser table, and so much more!
Overall, my journey with the company this year has been terrific. I have learned a lot about myself as a person and a graphic artist. My skills have improved and gave me a foot in the door into seeing what works and what doesn’t. The company gave me the opportunity to actually create and publish for a cause and people that I truly care about.
Result
The result was a 10% increase in Instagram and Facebook followers. We had the largest turnout to our end of year showcase. We fundraised $4470 for our competition season.
The combination of my two greatest passions was a dream to work on!