Student President Campaign
Brief: To create a campaign to support my running for Student President, with a budget of only £5 Process: I started by using Illustrator to make an identity based on my ‘shape your uni’ campaign for Student Governor last year, so that people might recognise the familiarity of voting for me last year. I asked a Graphic Designer to design my poster. I used screen printing to apply it to different media. Outcomes: Poster and manifesto; 100 wooden screen printed badges and paper backs; 100 limited edition mini screen prints; screen printed t-shirt and 50 square screen printed posters Reflections: I started this campaign by building on my previous identity, however, after I had done this, NUS created a ‘shape your uni’ campaign with similar imagery, so I had to drop the tagline. This meant I was left with a visual campaign, without a transferable tag-line. I therefore tried to simplify it to really basic shapes and bold ‘vote Meg’. There were another 5 people running for the position, so I was very nervous about putting in a lot of effort into the campaign in case I lost. I had one week to make my campaign, but I ended up making more screen printed posters on the first day of campaigning, meaning I really had to rush them and just stick with basic outcomes. However I feel they work well and communicate the intent.
Megan Ojari || LAUIL603 || Student President Campaign
The Graphic Designer who did my poster chose the type face and colour, which I then used across the rest of my campaign. I thought it was really good to actually seek help in this, as I would normally do it myself, but I wouldn’t have had time and it wouldn’t have looked as professional. I was so pleased with what he did for me, and I would definitely feel comfortable asking for help in things like this again. The screen printed posters were a really quick and effective way to cheaply produce a lot of promotional material, and I think by making them square they stood out from the rest of the A3 posters around. Also, since they were different variants of the overlay, I felt they still kept some individuality and didn’t seem boring across the whole uni. Like last year, I made and distributed wooden badges, but this time I screen printed them. I gave away all 100 of them over a week and a half on the turnstiles at uni, and I was really pleased how successful they were. I think this was due to me not putting my name on the front, and only on the backing card, meaning people would be more likely to wear them as simply an attractive design, rather than directly as part of the vote. I really liked the fact that I made a tangible good which people wanted to pick up and own. I also made 100 limited edition mini screen prints, which I signed and numbered. I printed these onto an A3 sheet then cut them up after. Again, I only printed the voting information on the back, and I managed to distribute all of them via the turnstiles. Overall I was happy with how they turned out, and I think they really served their purpose, but some of them were a bit patchy due to the ink being a bit thick. I think as I was in such a rush it was fine, but I would have liked to make them crisper. I printed a t-shirt which I wore that week, and used my social media platforms to promote my campaign, with some help from my classmate. Overall I was extremely happy with my campaign, which was successful, and I feel really proud that I was able to make a strong campaign which helped persuade my peers to vote for me. Even weeks later people have mentioned how they remember seeing my promotional material around. It was all such a nerve wrecking experience, putting myself out there in front of my peers, but my confidence in both myself and my work has grown exponentially because of it.
VOTE MEG For Student President
Megan Ojari || LAUIL603 || Student President Campaign