OFFICE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
2023 – 2024
Content is based around sustainability tips and tricks for followers, locals of Kalamazoo, and WMU students; achieved using illustration, photography, and infographics.
Most of my work for the OFS allowed me to create content using a wide variety of design styles. Utilizing post analytics, I gained direct knowledge and feedback as to the type of content people responded to best, whether that was more photo based or more illustrative based work. This variety allowed me to grow my skills in design by producing a large range of outcomes.
What’s Growing At Gibbs
The first image in each carousel utilizes the “Growing at Gibbs” logo I created. I did this to tie the series together while leaving me the opportunity to design in a wide range of concepts.
This three slide carousel was focused on one of Gibbs most abundant plants, tomatos. I decided to go with high contrast colors and bold type to create a very striking visual.
I decided to utilize a more mundane color palette for this carousel. I felt that keeping the color scheme more reserved gave an earthy, savory feeling to the design and conveyed the “feeling” of the bean plant.
For the Onions design, I utilized a combination of photo and illustration based content. I made this decision to grow my illustration skills, while also adding a bit of fun with the more cartoon style. During this time, our followers were also responding well to a combination of illustration and photo based content. This discovery was made using our post analytics on Meta Business Suite.
Closing in on the fall, our office decided to focus on our pumpkin crop at the Gibbs House. I took a more fun, illustrative approach to this post. Again, to work on my illustration skills and continue to add a fun element to this week’s content. The typography reflects this, utilizing a more energetic and playful font to compliment the illustration. The color palette is simple and complimentary, I made this decision to not let the color overpower the illustration.
Sustainability Tips
Our social media strategy included near daily content. Each day was split up into a different category. A few of these included WeSustain Wednesday, which focused on sustainable resources and businesses around Kalamazoo and at Western Michigan University, Healthy Planet, focused on efforts to bring awareness and action to healing the planet, and Roman’s Resources, providing tips for individials to implement into their daily lives to live more sustainably.
WeSustain Wednesday:
WeSustain Wednesday features a combination of design styles. For January, I went with a blue color palette that I selected for the entire month. I did this to color code our instagram feed by month, and provide a sense of unity across a variety of themed content. I also focused on a more illustrative approach for these posts to have more control over the color and type placement.
Healthy Planet:
Roman’s Resources:
For these designs, I went with a strictly photo based approach. I utilized stock photos to source my images of each plant and fruit, and paired it with a bold, sans serif for a modern, impactful approach. I stuck with a white background, and played around with negative space to finalize this carousel.
This series of Roman’s Resources featured quite a bit of body copy that was to be included in the final product. To simplify this as much as possible, I utilized simple photos that I edited to fit a unified color palette. I relied heavily on typography styles and color to convey heirarchy and important information so the reader could pick out the categorized and most important information.