Break Through!
Student Developer Conference (Student DevCon) brings highschool and post-secondary students together to learn from some of the tech & startup industry’s most notable experts. I designed the 2021 conference branding and collateral, hosted by Startup Edmonton. The annual program is now run through Amii’s techaid programs.
Promo Video video created by Chris Onciul with template graphics built by me!
Challenge
How might we combat zoom fatigue and encourage student participation, engagement, and sense of community for our online event?
Strategy
I worked with our Student Programming team to identify two potential concepts for the DevCon 2021 branding: ‘Carve Your Own Path’ and ‘Set Yourself Apart; Be Different’.
Concept One
The “Set Yourself Apart; Be Different” concept highlighted that the practical skills you learn at DevCon could make you more employable and help you crush your first gig outside of school.
Concept Two
With students were feeling burnt-out and Zoom fatigued, this concept communicated that DevCon was low-pressure, a fun-but-still-educational break from studying, and that you could decide when and how you participated.
Final Direction
The chosen direction was “Break through your studies”, which was a combo of both concepts.
Banner Advertisement, featured on the University of Alberta’s student news platform, The Gateway.
Design
The internet loves cute animals. With the events being online, students could join DevCon with their pets. I created an illustration-based visual system featuring friendly dog and cat mascots floating amongst coffee mugs and video players to communicate this casual feel, while also making it more approachable than previous tech events.
From there, I built over 80 print and digital marketing and event assets, including swag, banner ads, “behind the scenes” videos, billboards, letterhead, posters, PowerPopint templates, tshirts, website graphics, social graphics, and so much more.
Results
DevCon 2021 had record numbers with 800 students and 73 speakers. We had overall excellent participation and attendance at key events, and surpassed our engagement goals.
Wrap-up video created by the amazing Chris Onciul with graphics and stats built by me!
Thanks for checking out this project. I’m pretty proud of it.