Sailing Content
(Graphics optimized for Instagram post, Instagram story, and Facebook posts.)
Featured to the right are graphics drawing attention to our winners of annual awards and inductees into the College Sailing Hall of Fame.
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Graphics help award winners stand out among the mass of content being released, and with the help of professional-looking additives, the winners got the recognition and congratulations they deserved!
Below are various ads posted on social media pages I've managed over the years.
College Sailing Media, Fall 2019
Soon into the semester, I finalized a branding package and style guide for ICSA. It involved solidifying our three logo variations, pulling out the colors from the logo and taking the HEX codes into Adobe's color calculator, and finding secondary and accent colors that we would adhere to for all designs.
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I sorted through an endless list of typography sets to find type families that communicated the essence of ICSA's brand, and I assigned the type choices to designated purposes.
After the branding package was ironed out, I drew up some templates that would be interspersed into our feed and would, over time, present a cohesive, planned look to our page. The templates in conjunction with high quality photography would gel together in whatever progression they were placed, and the color and typographic choices from the style guide would be strictly adhered to.
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To the left is an example of how our page would look as a whole after following the rules laid out in the plan.
As I got my ducks in a row for ICSA, I began checking in on each of our 7 districts of the country and collecting their logos to make some templates to recognize weekly regatta winners. I quickly discovered the northwest district (NWICSA) was the only district without a burgee, so brainstorming and collaborating with representatives of the northwest moved to the top of the priority list.
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To the right is the first document I sent them with some initial design ideas that incorporated "northwest," in addition to the burgees of the other districts as examples.
Directly below is the second document with adjusted ideas based off their requested changes. They asked for incorporation of the Northwest flag that has blue, white, and green, and a specific tree. I brainstormed eight new designs and sent them back for review.
We finally settled on the design below, and the northwest tree idea got scrapped. They chose new colors for one of the originally suggested designs, and I then moved to formatting it for their social platforms and then added it to the conference folder.
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Mission accomplished! All seven districts now have burgees.
I worked in May of 2019 as the Media Communications Intern for Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) for College Sailing Nationals. Among my responsibilities were creating graphics for each championship event and for the winners of awards who were being inducted into the ICSA Hall of Fame.
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Challenges included photographing quickly in the morning because the branded sails weren't used until the day of, then designing graphics for upload as soon as possible, and optimizing them for various social media platforms.
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On site, I gathered material for Instagram and Facebook posts and Instagram stories. I kept other district media representatives in the loop with material so they could post from far away across the country.
After learning the ropes over nationals back in May of 2019, I signed on to help with ICSA's social media for the school year. What was a short project in May for nationals turned into a rather full-time revamp and branding process for all of ICSA's communication platforms.
We kicked off the year without any concrete direction or goals, but I put branding and planning at the top of my priority list and we didn't remain clueless for too long. Below is the first spread I released to let our followers know that college sailing was back in business for the school year after a summer away, formatted for our Facebook page and for Instagram.
The surrounding graphics were created simultaneously with other projects. From championship announcements to ranking releases and event notifications, I created roughly one to two graphics per week for Instagram.
While I was working for ICSA, I also continued my work for the Southeastern district, SAISA. We obtained new coaches in the southeast, so one of my first projects was to make graphics recognizing the new additions to our coaching staff.
Above is an example of a team recognition set for social media. Jacksonville University traveled out of conference and won the Cary Price Memorial Regatta at the University of Michigan. Interconference wins are a huge deal in college sailing, as it truly shows the strength of the conference when they're pitted against schools they never see. Their win warranted a nice announcement recognizing their accomplishments. On the left is the instagram post, and to the right is the coordinating Instagram story.
The ICSA Match Race National Championships kicked off the fall national championship season in Marblehead, MA. We were relatively light on coverage for the weekend, but above were the graphics I created for Stanford University when they took the national title.
Next up was the Kennedy Cup, the Keelboat National Championships at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The College of Charleston took home the title, and I was tasked with making the official graphics to make the announcement. I unfortunately wasn't provided with high quality photographs that satisfied the requirements I set back in the beginning of the semester, so I used Adobe photoshop to image trace the photographs and turn them into digital art. This disguised the poor resolution and rasterized the photos to a level that was acceptable to post on our communication platforms.
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The second square graphic above was the one that got chosen in the end to post but the left square was a strong contender and is worth adding to the lineup. The vertical graphic is the coordinating Instagram story that paired with the post.
Last in the lineup was the Laserperformance College Sailing Singlehanded National Championships in Santa Barbara, CA at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. Above are the official graphics I created for the winners of the event, and I formatted the Instagram graphic for both a press release header and for our Facebook cover photo.
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The most time consuming part of this regatta was managing live updates from the east coast. I had two UCSB sailors on site gathering photos and videos via phone, and they sent material on a constant flow the entire weekend for me to doctor with text and drawings to create engaging Instagram stories. ICSA does not have the funding to provide live coverage for the fall national championships, so the closest we can get to the ideal coverage is rapid Instagram story utilization. To the right is a screen recording of the weekend's Instagram story that our followers relied on for visual updates.
Laser Nationals Instagram Story >>
Giving Tuesday Fundraising Campaign
The projects never end! But that's what I love about this job.
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Facebook notified me during a routine checkin of our ICSA page that they were planning to match every dollar donated to nonprofits on Giving Tuesday (December 3rd), so I got a fundraising campaign approved by my supervisors. If we're going to fundraise any day of the year, why not take advantage of the offer to double our efforts?
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The grounding idea for the day of fundraising was to offer a donation incentive for those who gave $20 or more. Supporters who give $50 are going to give $50 one way or another, incentive or not. But it's the younger demographic (my age at the median, ranging about 10 years in either direction) that can be convinced with stickers. If we can get a good handful of high schoolers, college students, and recent college graduates to give $20 each, that 20 becomes 40 and we're on our way to a solid day of fundraising.
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The four designs above were what I came up with to print as incentive stickers, and the far left ended up getting the most votes after polling a few large groups of sailors. Next was printing the stickers and designing the graphics to announce the plan for the day.
Below is the set of graphics I created for the fundraising campaign. The Instagram square doesn't completely match the other two formats because the dark blue doesn't match our aesthetic for the Instagram page, but by utilizing the same typography and iconography, the theme is still easily recognizable and the appearance is coherent throughout.
2020 Opti Nationals Branding
This is one event of a good handful that got cancelled or are in jeopardy due to Covid-19. I was asked to create a logo and a social media branding package for Opti and Laser nationals hosted by Old Dominion University. Progress with the logos was put on hold to observe how the virus was going to affect the country, but featured here is the pause point. I'm in love with the color palette and think it's young, fresh, and unisex. My first instinct was the top left design, then I pushed myself to think outside the box for the other two to present as other options to the event organizers.
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If the event takes place, we'll choose a logo and I'll proceed to making snapchat filters, social media templates, stickers, shirts, and other merchandise based off a central look.
These are initial brainstorming packages presented to client schools who commissioned burgee creations from scratch. Right off the bat, I'll send 12 initial ideas to clients and ask them to give me feedback on what they love at first glance or if elements of a few burgees speak to them. I'll blend ideas and change designs as many times as necessary until the client is completely happy with the outcome.
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Head over to my College Sailing Branding (or high school or yacht club!) page to learn more about my packages and process.
The above three graphics were used to announce Sportsperson and Graduate / Undergraduate Leader of the Year awards for SAISA. (Yes that's me!) These graphics appeared on Facebook and Instagram to recognize the award winners of the inaugural All-SAISA Awards.
The above graphic is the logo that US Sailing released to advertise their Starboard Portal that helps sailors stay connected and learn during the quarantine. I made variations off their original logo to advertise a webinar series that College Sailing put on for developing teams. Canvasing platforms to get the word out was the goal so this appeared in all formats and variations!
