Western
Swing Dance
Club
SOFT SKILLS
Empathy
Problem Solving
Responsibility
Attention to Detail
The North Dakota State University Western Swing Dance Club is a student led organization that focuses on teaching students the art of swing dancing. It is an activity that gives students a chance to take a break from studying, be active, and meet new people. The club is focused on making connections and having fun! I have had the honor of being an officer for the club for the past three years, and working my way to now being the President. During these years, I have been able to use my design skills to build a brand for the club.
Design Objectives
Create a brand for the club to make it more recognizable and give it some personality, building something students are proud to be a part of. Another objective was to create shirt designs for students that can be worn to show support for the club, and look cohesive at large events. Lastly, marketing needed to be done to advertise for club events such as organized dances or meetings. Eye-catching designs that would interest students while walking around campus, or on social media.
Branding
Old Logo
Brand Characteristics:
Vintage
Friendly
Fun
Inviting
Western
#000000
#DDC982
docktrin
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Logo uses: social media icons, shirts
#FFFFFF
New Logo
Shirts
Over 150 shirts sold to students
Designs also used to make stickers
These graphics were created to supplement the clubs regularly posted images. They are used to advertise meeting dates and information. Drawing inspiration from the shirt designs, these graphics make the Instagram feed more visually appealing, because they break up all of the other images. They also relay the necessary information in a way that is more intriguing.
Check out our Instagram @ndsuwesternswing
Social Media
Posters
These posters were designed to promote large dances that our club hosted. Large posters were printed and displayed in the Memorial Union building, and I resized them to work as social media posts for digital advertising. These events drew in over 150 students each. My favorite part of designing these were customizing typography, and playing with creative layouts.
Takeaways from this project:
Working on this project has allowed me to be creative, and work with an artistic style I love (vintage designs). It has also taught me more about working within a specific style, and how to continue to iterate to build new design that match the aesthetic but are unique.
I am passionate about taking plain information and presenting it in a beautiful way, to get people more excited about it. I find it to be a fun challenge designing Instagram posts, for example, with the meeting dates and creating a post that we were proud to pin to the top of the feed. I also invested time into the shirt designs because I wanted people to proudly wear the club shirts around campus, rather than a shirt they would buy and maybe wear once.
Building those shirts was part of creating a brand personality for the club, one that people were excited to be a part of. It has been an awesome experience getting to witness so many of my fellow students wearing shirts that I designed, and supporting the club that I love.
