Visual Branding and Marketing
Geek Week
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Branding
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Digital Design
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Pixel Art
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Print Design
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T-Shirts
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Photography
Geek Week is a tradition at the University of Delaware which launched in 2023, featuring a variety of events and activities where students can celebrate their favorite books, movies and tv, video games, board games, and other forms of fandoms and popular culture.
At conceptualization, I joined the Geek Week committee to better understand the vision of this new tradition, and in collaboration with Geek Week staff, I developed a branded theme and marketing plan for all assets and deliverables.
This theme would also adhere to the branding standards of the University of Delaware, using UD's trademark Blue and Gold colors.
8-Bit/Pixel Art
The initial idea and theme.
After discussions about the meaning of "Geek" with staff organizers and the Geek Week commmittee, we decided to pursue an 8-bit, pixel art theme in the spirit of retro video games to apply across all graphics to promote events and activities.
I created character art around The University of Delaware's mascot, YoUDee. I also licensed an 8-bit/retro video game style font to use for the "Geek Week" title.
Digital Marketing
Geek Week requires a variety of digital graphics to promote the week in general, and specific events. Deliverables included graphics for instagram, TV screens, LED screens, and the website. Accessibility standards were applied across all deliverables
Graphic for outdoor digital sign. I created new pixel art characters based off UD's mascot YoUDee and special guest speaker John Cho, themed around the Mario Kart Tournament hosted during Geek Week. Additional 8-bit/pixel art elements like the stars and sky were inspired by other retro games like ToeJam and Earl.
Designed for 1080x1920 screens
and Instagram Stories.
An event page icon designed for the website to promote the Open Arcade, with a silhouette of the UD mascot playing arcade games.
Fandom Themes
As Geek Week developed over a couple years, we decided to theme some of the graphics and deliverables in homage to the characters of special guests speakers invited to campus.
For 2024, guest speaker Giancarlo Esposito's character Moff Gideon from the Star Wars franchise was used as inspiration. I scheduled and photographed our mascot YoUDee posing as if they were holding a lightsaber, and developed an event poster and giveaway for students..
Later in 2026, I used photos from a previous photoshoot I did with our mascot, and developed graphics which celebrated the show Stranger Things in connection to the guest speaker Gaten Matarazzo's character, Dustin Henderson.
I designed t-shirts to match each year's Geek Week which were given out to students who participated in the events.
Photography
In addition to providing branding and graphic design for Geek Week, I also captured photos at a variety of scheduled events. These photos were useful for future marketing needs of Geek Week, and were shared on UD's Instagram accounts to celebrate it's success. I also supervised and scheduled a team of student photographers to capture photos and video during other Geek Week events.
