— PROJECT NAME
Unsta Diseño
— ROLE
Art Direction
Event coordination
Branding
— DATE
04/10/2021
— TEAM
CORE TEAM:
Álvaro Paredes,
Josefina Diaz Vazquez,
Ana Paula Pereira
Gabriela Ganassin,
Augusto Briz,
Ana Frascarolo,
Fedora Maranzana,
Pedro Torres Posse
— LINKS
Website ↗
Unsta Diseño is what happens when dreaming big meets teamwork.
On 2021, while still accomodating to virtual classes and an on-going quarantine situation, there were absolutely no plans of picking up UNSTA’s design week event (Encuentro Diseño) last issued on 2019. There was no team, no physical space and no budget.
(UNSTA is a private university located in Argentina that offers degrees on Graphic and Multimedia Design)
The whole world have had to transition their lives, careers and jobs to the virtual space for the past year. Why wouldn’t this event adapt to virtuality? And what's more, why wouldn't it benefit from it? With these ideas in mind, @Alvaro, @Josefina and I decided to pitch this idea to the University's career director with strong commitment and big enthusiasm.
As we were planning it, hosting a virtual event started to seem like it had more advantages than downsides. It meant that we could host an online event with no capacity limit and no location barriers. Anyone could come.
In June, our amazing team started to rewire and rethink the event’s plan to update it in order to meet the year standards for the 2021 edition, as well as adapting them to the University's goals and guidelines.
Coming up with a completely different brand identity and being hosted on a new streaming platform, Unsta Diseño took place on October 2021 with 12 worldwide speakers from the arts and design fields, +100 viewers, 3 sponsorships and 2 brand deals.
(2024 update: UnstaDiseño is still up and running! Check out here ↗)
Renaming
& Brand
UnstaDiseño needed a full rebranding. Understanding the past brands issues was key to design its new identity. The goal was to combine two concepts:
1. Tie the university and the event in a clearer way. The old naming “Encuentro Diseño” allowed for the event to be excluded from Unsta, failing to emphasize the context and familiarity.
2. The symbol – it’s called “Virgulilla” and it comes from the shape of the letter Ñ, only present in the spanish language and unavoidable on the word diseño.
We came up with a symbol, inspired by a “virgulilla” shape which was intended to be the main use for the brand.
At first, it started appearing on Campus as a “secret code” to create excitement.
It was also decided that a typographic secondary brand was largely needed in order for people to name the event in their heads and get used to the new naming, since the brand had suffered multiple name changes over the years.
A curse and a blessing
“Virgulillas” sure are great and funny looking, but spanish speaking designers often
find it problematic as it disrupts typography lines.
Since Ñ is a letter present in the word “diseño” and it's very representative of our
main language, it needed to be embraced and emphasized instead of erased and avoided.
(A morphing animation spelling “UNSTA”)
(Fun fact: Some people see the virgulilla in the white space and some see it blended to the A shape!)
The bold color choice was based on 2021 design trends. UnstaDiseño is a yearly event, intended to be capable of adapting to different editions, each being representative of context and new trends.
It's important for the brand symbol to stay neutral, allowing itself to morph and transform for every edition. It's a white canvas and every class is invited to give their take and encouraged to leave their mark.
Find 2021 edition Adobe Color file here. Get inspired!
The platform
The chosen streaming platform was Twitch. Unlike Zoom or Google Meet, this true streaming platform allowed the viewers to feel like they were watching a tv show. Along with the broadcast pack design, commercial breaks, moderators and affiliate tools, the team could control and customize the experience.
One of the main challenges was to guide the viewers to this new platform. Younger age groups would adapt and learn faster while older generations might feel overwhelmed and lost. The main channel as well as e-mailing campaigns and social media included information to help them interact with the stream, so one gets left behind!
Our audience learned day by day how to navigate Twitch and thanks to the platform’s easy access, the viewer count grew up to +100 by the second day. Wohoo!
Screens • Broadcast pack design
The initial countdown started each day!
Social Media
Instagram was the event’s main channel. Students found out about it via instagram reels, had sneak peeks of the speakers, received alerts and could participate on giveaways from their accounts.
We gave away 12 Domestika course giftcards and 10 free breakfasts at in-Campus Havanna coffee truck, which helped us get visibility and an organic engagement push.
Website
UnstaDiseño’s website included a sign up form were people could subscribe to get alerts for streams, a countdown and a page dedicated to the speakers' bios.
Those who signed up received the special email campaigns filled with reminders of the stream as well as freebies and giveaway info to stay up to date. No one gets left behind!
E-maling
E-mailing campaigns were sent everyday to remind the viewers of each day schedule, promote the giveaways and freebies.
It also performed as an unexpected backup hero when every social media platform was down on the event’s launching day! Phew
Unsta Diseño was an amazing opportunity. As a team, we enjoyed developing the project right from the "what if…", through the sleepless nights were everything seemed messy and scattered, to sharing it with the public and seeing them taking part.
It proved us how design is present on every step of the way and challenged us to think ahead, be prepared and go back to the drawing board whenever it was needed. Solid concepts, hard work and well executed design is what allowed us to move forward and build this event from scratch.
I'm very proud of the results of the first edition and forever thankful for everything this experience has taught me. As seniors, it was our parting gift to the students and the community.
We can't wait for Unsta Diseño 2022! We wish future students all the luck! 💞
