For my first year in HackBeanpot, I was mainly responsible for all social media and marketing design collateral. I helped develop brand image for website UI, events, social media and company campaigns.
A huge unique part of our annual hackathon is the theme- which is a design idea that gets incorporated throughout every aspect of the year. It usually has a short tagline/title and we build a design system based off it (color palette, typography, design elements etc). This design system becomes integral throughout the year as we make design collateral ranging from social media posts to merch to decor at the venue to even the words we use.
As a design team, we do a variety of brainstorming exercises and then extensive development where we each work on one theme idea. Then, the organization as a whole votes on what theme will be used for the next year. That year, my theme (Desert Exploration) was chosen! I created many different components to correspond with the theme by making vector illustrations in Figma.
I also directed a team of 4 in designing and ordering merchandise from local Boston-owned businesses for 150+ attendees of the hackathon. Specifically, I was responsible for the sweatshirt merch for our team and the t - shirts for all of the hackers, volunteers and sponsors at the event.
For my junior year / my second year in HackBeanpot, I was the Design Director of the design team. After sorting through 45+ applications, interviews, grading and deliberation, I picked the 5 members of my team for the next year.
I led the team to brainstorm and develop a new themed design system and brand identity. I taught Figma workshops (1 workshop on the pen tool & illustrating and 1 workshop on components & variants) and offered resources and guidance to my designers. I conducted 1:1s to get ideas of their goals and experiences. I actively discussed design and provided critique to help my designers both learn and complete deadlines on time. I came up with weekly agendas and deadlines to keep the designers on track for our big event of the Hackathon in February and all of the smaller events leading up to it.
Also as a Team Lead (Design Director) in the overarching organization, I collaborated with the 5 other Team Leads (Co-Directors, Tech Director, Sponsib Coordinator, Social Outreach Coordinator), to build out timelines, logistics and long term visions for the hackathon and organization in itself. We also strove to build a supportive and friendly community where all our members could have fun.
