CARLOS VELASCO
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Contents 4 UNL Design 8 Earthstock 10 Prairie Pines 13 The 58th Nebraska Shrine Bowl 16 Nebraska Innovation Campus 18 Elevate
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UNL Design
Undergraduate Research Project, Web Design, CMS design Academic Year 2015-2016
UNL Design is the online portal that students in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Art and Art History department’s can use to find internship and job opportunities, scholarship and grants, and other useful news and resources. The project was begun two years ago as an Undergraduate research ‘UCARE’ project with different team members. This year I am leading the project alongside faculty sponsor, professor Colleen Syron. My role with UNL Design has been both the continued management of the website, updating it with new editorial content, but also the aesthetic redevelopment of the website. Using wordpress, the website was redesigned from its former iteration to have a more consistent color and typographic scheme and also allows for more interactive features such as a prominent calendar and social media interaction. In redeveloping the site an evaluation of what content was used the most was looked at and ultimately the website was skimmed down to focus more on editorial content, upcoming events and an engagement between students and professional events hosted by AIGA.
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Accent Color HEX:#db3539
Heading
Raleway Bold
Body Copy
Georgia Regular
Mobile Edition The redevelopment of the website also meant a stronger focus on how the website would respond on mobile devices. The website is completely responsive and optimized for mobile use as well as desktop
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Earthstock 2016 Multimedia campaign, April, 2016
Earthstock is a month-long celebration of the Earth that was started in April 2014 by the Environmental Sustainability Committee of ASUN Student Government at UNL. Earthstock is an event in campus and community sustainability that has drawn many followers to events, heightened awareness of living a sustainable and socially conscious lifestyle, and has also helped in strengthening the role of Sustainability Organizations within the University. My role within the past few years has been to find ways of keeping the original brand that I created three years ago alive, but to continue innovating it each year. This year I decided to take on a more complex illustrative process that build upon graphics from the past. Processes that I had learned in the past year began to show up in the event graphics and there was overall more of an artistic risk and edge taken in the promotion of events. The visuals for promoting Earthstock also began to utilize more public spaces such as the Railyard Cube Large Digital Display in the Haymarket alongside a more comprehensive social media promotion plan. 6
Earthstock Music Festival III The promotional material for the concert that helps to also raise money to the Lincoln Bike Kitchen, is one of the highlights of the Earthstock brand each year. Essentially a ‘hot mess’ of images, colors, glitchery, and typography, set against a black background in the form of the Earthstock logo the poster is at the same time a crazy collage of freedom while having a restrained edge.
Policy for the Plains Policy for the Plains is an event that brings foward policymakers in a panel discussion to talk about sustainability in Nebraska. The Policy for the Plains visual for this year was inspired by the screen-printing process that began with the Design + Social Justice screenprinting workshop. The poster is meant to be remi
First Friday at Crescent Moon Coffee A major component of Earthstock is to also promote environmentally focused artwork in the local community. Promoting the First Friday at Crescent Moon Coffee event included a series of posters and web graphics in over twenty color schemes utilizing a line drawing segment from the main illusatration. The event was able to get artwork from various artists, most in the Department of Art and Art History 7
The Green Guide to Lincoln + GreenUNL Website Publication + Website 2014-2016
The Green Guide to Lincoln is a publication created for ASUN’s Environmental Sustainability Committee that focuses on promoting sustainable lifestyles among both college students, faculty, and residents of Lincoln, NE. The guide focuses on presenting information through easy to read copy, engaging graphics and a friendly, approachable voice to the presented information.
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In learning from the Green Guide to Lincoln and the weaknesses it had in being truly accessible, representative of diverse opinions and able to stay updated, the evolution was to create a website that would have a similar mission, to educate and promote sustainability among campus. Green UNL is website that connects together projects going on within
the Environmental Sustainability progams at ASUN, sustainability initiatives throughout campus and the Lincoln community and finally serves to help educate readers on issues relating to sustainability. The website utilizes a responsive and clean design that was inspired by nature. For too long people associated ‘Green’ with over the top green color everywhere. Green UNL took on a
subtle and natural approach to what sustainability could look like on the web. With subtle graphic effects, elegant and minimalistic typography and design, and a subdued color scheme, the website is a refined version of the vision I had two years ago and is a stable platform for promoting and educating community members on environmental issues for years to come. 9
Prairie Pines
Branding, App Interaction Design, Photography, Signage, Videography, Animation and Motion Graphics, Installation Summer 2015 During the summer of 2015 I enrolled in an independent study studio course for graphic design that was centered around the theme of branding ‘Prairie Pines’ a property in the edge of Lincoln that serves as a research site for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In the class I produced a variety of material ranging from wooden signage, photography, and, a short film that used both animation, videography, motion graphics and kinetic typography to tell the history, mission, and future of Prairie Pines through the words of Prairie Pines founder, Walter Bagley.
Prairie Pines Fashion Photography Photography by Carlos Velasco. Models: Dorsey Kauffman & Halle Bowman, Masks by Aaron Sutherlen
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Prairie Pines Mobile Application Concept Screens of Prairie Pines Mobile Application, showing the use of different trails, navigation, and an icon system developed for the trails.
Signage System The signage system created for the Prairie Pines park is made of untreated wood that was laser-cut into a rounded corner rectangle with two variations, one with a hollow back and one with a moss back. The type and graphics were created with black vinyl on top of the wood.
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Eyes Open Short Film Eyes Open was a short documentary about the life of Walt and the origin of Prairie Pines that was filmed and edited by me during the Prairie Pines project. The film utilizes a variety of motion graphics, a warm color grade throughout and playful use of visual with Walt’s narration. Watch the Film http://tinyurl.com/ne37z7y
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The 58th Nebraska Shrine Bowl Branding, Direction, Web and Print Design Spring 2016
The Nebraska Shrine Bowl is Jacht Ad Lab’s oldest client, and for the 58th year games, I was able to work as the designer in charge of creating and developing their new look. Previously the Nebraska Shrine Bowl had relied on a retro lookacross their media and had kept a relatively lower social media profile. This year, the main request was to take it in a new direction and modernize it. The inspiration for the look and feel of the new Shrine Bowl was the sleek and minimalist appearance of contemporary athletic graphic design. I wanted both the players involved to feel like they were professional football players and for the children going to the game to feel like they were a part of something incredible. The new direction utilizes HDR-esque photography, lower saturation, white space, creamy colors, light streaks, and a sense of infinite backlight.
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The proposed ticket design features, for the first time in the Shrine Bowl, a two-sided approach with an illustration on one side and an elegantly typeset backside. The colorscheme is refined to the darker neutrals that are seen in the campaign with a special black on black for Club, red-grey for General Admission, and Cream for Student Tickets.
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Social Media utilizes a consistent look and feel appropriate with the main direction. The strategy includes utilizing a variety of branded images, collaborating with videographers, photographers and other creatives to also create content that individually spotlights each student in a way that
feels professional and exciting. My work for the social media includes the initial set of player spotlights (before I handed that off to a photographer), graphics for an animated background created by a videographer, and important milestones like ticket sales.
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Nebraska Innovation Campus Sustainability Collateral
Signage Systems, Publication Design, Report Design, Environmental DesignSummer, 2016
Internal Green Guide A publication was designed for Innovation campus as part of a sustainability efforts to be an internal guide to sustainability for NIC employees. Set in a simple two column layout (1/3 of the page devoted to a side bar) with typography set in the ‘Neutra’ typeface that is core to NIC brand standards. The publication was designed to be a clean, emphasizing the photography and statistics in aesthetically pleasing manners. Sections are introduced with a large image taking 16
up the width of the page, a header is over-layed on- top of the image for section heads. Copy inside of the publication is typeset in the NIC gray color with small pops of color throughout the flat graphics that correspond to NIC colors for specific topics such as waste or energy.
Aluminum Signage : A core goal of NIC is to reduce landfill waste and to promote recycling and composting. With Epoch Labs, we developed a system of three aluminum signs to be placed around NIC using easily recognizable graphic images, clear typography and recognizable color schemes that would also encourage the use of composting and recycling.
Window Signage : NIC uses extremely sustainable practices and materials and part of the collaborative effort included highlighting these facts in a series of window signs. These signs are duo-toned and each highlight individual parts of buildings such as LEED certification or the use of Alternative Energy. 17
ELEVATE Campaign
Multimedia Campaign, Creative Direction, Branding, Socially-Engaged Design December, 2015–March, 2016 I was approached to design a full campaign for the ‘Elevate’ Student Government Election party at UNL in 2015. This campaign included everything from social media, videos, print ads and more. The Elevate campaign was special because, with a record breaking 25% voter turnout and over 80% of the slate elected into a position, it represented one of the most ambitious and strategized campaigns to reach across the 25,000 students at UNL. The social media reach was also fantastic with 20,000 impressions in the first week alone.
Nº1 Creal Blue Dark Matte Serenity Blue
Nº2 Elevate Blue Serenity Blue
Nº3 Nasrati Rose Pastel Matte Rose
Nº4 Stetson Gold Warm Golden Yellow
One of the most prominent visual elements of the brand was the consistent use of gradient infused waveforms and the elevate upwards mark throughout. This border design was inspired by the idea of diversity and inclusiveness. One of the key platforms of Elevate was including student voices of all backgrounds and perspectives. Because each line, each color, and each shape variance could represent this concept, it was placed around the central Elevate mark.
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Selection of Profile Pictures
Utilizing Mobile App ‘Snapchat’ with customized filters that were purchased for strategic locations and days allowed the reach of the campaign to go beyond print material that is too-often discarded.
Selection of Printed Materials To launch the campaign, it was important to consider both the real world and the world of web from start to finish. Before launching the campaign, I shot and edited a short video of the executive candidates officially announcing their candidacy. This video launched alongside an official website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and an extensive first-day campaign event in strategic locations throughout City and East Campus. The video reached large organic growth, and alongside an established list of key platforms and topics, helped to create a comprehensive, ready from day one strategy.
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