Spending the Summer at UCSB!
As a Creative Design and Marketing Assistant at the UC Santa Barbara Office of Summer Sessions, branding is key to my work. Here, I update you on my projects for Summer 2021, and how these projects creatively use UCSB branding.
Visit for more department information at summer.ucsb.edu
Students, leverage your summer experience.
Breaking Down UCSB Summer Session's Missions and Branding
After spending time with my coordinator, I noted some key elements and emphases:
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Spread awareness about summer sessions resources and aid
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Remove the stigmas around "summer school"
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Educate about the various summer programs offered to college and pre-college students
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Encourage students to leverage and elevate their summer experience
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Make summer fun
Those key elements and emphases gave way to the materials I created for our social media.
First Project: Updating Instagram story covers
BEFORE
AFTER
Second Project: Create promotional graphics for social media
A promotional graphic for our social media was needed for when summer program advisors sent out emails to their student cohorts. I created two versions based on UCSB branding; one looking more colorful and one looking more institutional.
Third Project: Create Instagram posts about events, resources, and deadlines
Instagram was the main social platform for UCSB Summer Sessions. My responsibility was to create posts relating to summer and summer academic sessions. Our Instagram was updated almost every day of the week.
One huge series I hosted was the first ever Summer Student Choice Awards. an asynchronous awards session where students get to pick and highlight their top summer memories and to recognize those involved in summer session. We collected votes using a Google Form and compiled them into large posts with the results!
Fourth Project: Create videos with motion graphics
Initially, I was assigned to focus on introducing more video media to our social platforms. I had to divide time between design and video production in the end. UCSB Summer Sessions needed more motion graphics to make viewing our content more enjoyable for students. I was able to work on two videos introducing the student peer advisors for some of the summer programs at UCSB. It involved a lot of communication back-and-forth due to the online format, but we all made it work.
Finding New Ways to Engage:
A Reflection
New resources and programs were always coming out during the summer, and I had to create visual assets for them. The volume of content I had to help create, alongside my colleagues, in order to keep our social platforms updated almost every day pushed my creativity to the limits (in a good way). I was glad to be able to introduce new media for our social platforms while having lots of creative freedom.
Working with coworkers in a strictly online environment was not new to me, but I sharpened my email etiquette and Slack proficiency during that summer.
From this position, I now realize I do like to have more structure, organization, and communication to guide me while I work. I am fully capable of assuming what tasks need to be done next. However, the huge volume of information and resources that were coming in often made it difficult to sort out who has responsibility for what among my colleagues.