One of the most important channels to reach Cal Poly Graphic Communication students is through Instagram. Our department’s Instagram page, @calpolygrc, is a main source of information for students, so we wanted to focus our efforts on this platform. Additionally, Instagram allowed us to graphically showcase our journal process in the production stage.
Our Marketing Coordinator, Lindsay Hynes, designed all posts in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign. We broke up our posts into 3 categories: executive board member highlights, positivity posts, and journal-focused posts. For the design of posts, Lindsay kept the theme fairly minimalistic. She opted for abstract elements that not only reflect the nature of California landscapes, but also the uncertainty of the world we are facing right now. Lindsay alternated the use of colors from our palette, every three posts, to bring our feed to life.
In the executive board member highlights, we got to know each team member personally. We got to hear about the member’s hometown, hobbies, and favorite Adobe applications, music genres, and movie/TV shows. The positivity posts featured uplifting quotes from African American speakers, poets, authors, and social activists. The journal-focused posts showcased design elements of the journal, illustrations created by our design team, and demonstrations of our augmented reality implementations.
Another social media platform we utilized was LinkedIn. This platform allowed us to connect with a wider audience of Graphic Communication students, faculty, and industry professionals. Through LinkedIn we also highlighted our executive board members in a professional light. The posts used our professional headshots and focused on our position duties in TAGA, career goals, and what we learned from the experience.