APIMEDA Programs and Services
ROLE
Design & Publications Assistant (Online & Social Media)
TIMELINE
10 months
(Sep 2023 - Jun 2024)
TOOLS
Canva, Procreate, CapCut
Designing a visual brand to better connect the Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American (APIMEDA) community with opportunities to personally thrive, build coalition, and learn valuable skills.
Overview
01
about
Providing resources and support necessary for a community to thrive
Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American (APIMEDA) Programs and Services is an initiative within the Office of the Vice Chancellor – Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at UC San Diego that was born out of strong student advocacy in 2014. APIMEDA Programs and Services works to provide outreach, programs, and other support for UCSD’s APIMEDA community to thrive through education, advocacy, and coalition building.
role
Creating opportunities to connect and build community consistently
As one of three Design & Publications Assistants, I was responsible for all things ‘Online & Social Media’: promoting APIMEDA Programs & Services, its programs, and its initiatives; creating designs and content for our social media, newsletter, and other print and digital media; managing all social media and the electronic newsletter; working with the team to facilitate events; and simply supporting the community.
Given that there hadn’t been a Design & Publications Assistant for Online and Social Media before, I wanted to make full use of my design skills and experiences to build and support the community by developing consistent branding, starting and running community art projects, and promoting events with well-designed graphics combined with fun illustrations.
Design
02
brand identity
Ushering in a new era for APIMEDA Programs & Services’ visual identity
With readymade Canva templates dominating the look of APIMEDA Programs & Services’ graphics and content, I set about revamping the brand identity and introducing consistency by creating new color palettes, reinforcing the use of certain typefaces and layouts, standardizing logo usage, and developing friendly design elements.
Brand guidelines organized to document changes, maintain consistency, and communicate with the rest of the team and future staff how APIMEDA Programs & Services should be presented.
graphics
Event ads, special initiatives, and fun staff posts
While the first few posts featured some experimentation here and there, subsequent content made use of: a color palette consisting of familiar logo colors paired with comforting, warm tones; the chunky, sans-serif Agrandir Wide combined with Helvetica Now for readability and cleanliness; a clear type hierarchy; and blorbos — smiling blobs of color representative of the APIMEDA community.
APIMEDA Programs & Services’ Instagram Feed, filled with all the graphics and reels I created throughout the 2023-2024 year.
Interspersed with event graphics were infographics, community highlights, student staff posts, and heritage month celebrations — a joint effort with the Community Assistants. You can hover or click over a post to look through it!
zine project
Creating a platform for showcasing art and connecting with the community
I created the HeART & __ zine series as a way to provide a platform for the community to showcase their art, share their voices, and get to know one another — one of my goals coming into this role. (Plus, I had always found zines fun and a nice outlet for some introspection).
While I took care of the promotional graphics, marketing, and final products on my own, I also worked with another Design & Publications Assistant to come up with themes and facilitate art-making workshops each quarter.
Art-calls and graphics promoting the art-making workshops for each zine.
The visual style of the zine takes inspiration from physical zines — scrapbook-y and fun — and differs each quarter according to the theme. To this end, I drew a font with a crayon-like brush and created collages using online images and scans of my own art supplies.
Though the multimedia elements aren’t anything like the usual branding, I made use of similar layouts, the APIMEDA Programs & Services color palette, and Helvetica Now to simultaneously avoid straying too far and differentiate the project as a new office initiative.
The three issues: HeART & Heritage (split in two), HeART & Harmony, and HeART & Healing.
Instagram reels & Marketing
Archiving 2023-2024 at the APIMEDA Programs & Services Office
I also filmed and edited Instagram reels for community event recaps and event promotion as a way to explore other forms of content and keep the community involved. The latter was especially important to me, especially if they weren’t able to make it or if the event was an educational workshop. (Plus, it was fun to watch our reels as an office at the end of the year and remember what went on).
A few of my favorite reels: a guide on how to get to the office, a community time recap, and a promotional reel for an event collab.
Instagram Stories were also frequently used to market events and engage with the community! One of my favorite projects was the student staff takeover, where we took our followers along for a day in our lives and answered questions about our roles, responsibilities, and projects in preparation for upcoming job applications.
newsletter
Delivering word of interesting events and opportunities
In addition to Instagram, I also maintained APIMEDA Programs & Services’ weekly newsletter, which provides information about events and opportunities across campus.
To make it easier to skim through, I set up a type hierarchy and changed colors for consistency. I also used emojis and wrote in a friendly tone to better engage readers, which was extended to Instagram captions.
The old newsletter (on the left) versus the updated newsletter (on the right). Hover over or click a newsletter to skim through it!
Reflections
03
impact
When new becomes familiar and familiar becomes community
It was incredibly gratifying to see APIMEDA Programs & Services’ brand solidify throughout the year, especially since I had a hand in that growth. Having people come by an event and gush about “cute blobby guys”, “silly goofy newsletter subject lines”, and “your promises of food on the story” more and more was all I could ask for. Seeing the community grow before my eyes both in-person and online? Serotonin boosts all around.
263%
183%
18%
434
17%
13%
what i learned
re: Intangibles and community
A brand is much more than pretty visuals and words on a screen — that we all know. Working at APIMEDA Programs & Services gave me the chance to move beyond knowing and onto doing all the tangibles and seeing-feeling-immersing in all the intangibles. Between sorting out visual elements and deciding on certain layouts, I was also getting to know new freshmen who’d quickly become part of the community, APIMEDA faculty and staff across campus, and like-minded APIMEDA folk outside of UCSD. I’ve learned that a brand wouldn’t be anything without the community they serve and it should reflect that — whether it be through hand-drawn elements or warm colors.
Balance and how to achieve it without burnout
Managing senior year, multiple social media platforms, and content creation together isn’t meant for those lacking in time management. I hit the ground running when I went into my role and I don’t think I stopped running very often—I couldn’t afford it. The first few weeks were definitely rough, but after getting a hang of my responsibilities, setting up a proper schedule, giving myself grace by making better use of my resources, and learning to ask for help, I’d like to say that I was able to find balance…and that I’m confident in doing so easily in the future.
Softwares? I’ve got three new ones!
It’s a bit ironic for someone who doesn’t post much on their own social media to suddenly be responsible for content creation and marketing on Instagram — but that’s exactly what happened for me. I went from knowing the basics of Instagram and Canva to a regular user who knew all the keyboard shortcuts and secrets. Learning more about Instagram led to wondering how IG Reels worked, which then led me through a doom-scrolling rabbit hole and a CapCut crash-course. It’s been wonderful to get to pick up new things and I can’t wait to use these skills and learn more.
a huge thanks to —
Windi — your wisdom, encouragement, and stories were everything and more. I’m grateful to have learned so much from you, from confidence to never taking slack from anyone.
Brian — for all the check-ins, jokes, and infinite wisdom on maintaining balance, self-care, and most importantly, a perfect Connections (lol) streak — thank you. Thank you for believing in me, understanding me, and helping me grow as a designer and a person.
Design & Pubs team, Adalia and Alex my beloveds — we took this one-person job, made it our own, and knocked it out of the park! I’m so proud of us and everything we’ve started and accomplished, from being the firsts in our positions to new programs!! I’ll miss our team meetings/rant sessions/mutual support club/anything-recs so, so much.
Dani, Mira, Christie, Nicole, Peixuan, and Catherine — much love and hugs to y’all, because I don’t know how else to express how much I love y’all. I can’t wait to see y’all again for the 10th anniversary and our long-delayed night out!
