THE BUZZ SHOWCASE
PROJECT OUTLINE
Each year, Murdoch University’s graphic design students in the Service Design unit run a creative media showcase – exhibiting a year's worth of student work from each creative discipline. The showcase is located in Murdoch’s Geoffrey Bolton Library, displaying film screenings, a gaming area and a photography gallery amongst other exhibits + branded material.
The theme for Murdoch’s Open Showcase (2022) was THE BUZZ, a brand that displays creatives and creative works as passionate, connected, and enthusiastic, emphasising energy, excitement, and stimulation. To achieve this, the brand comprised repetitive sound-adjacent motifs to visualise a 'buzzing' sound and a sense of movement, stimulating feelings of liveliness.
Each student in the unit had different roles, responsibilities, and design tasks to ensure all exhibition bases were covered before the showcase’s delivery. Because of this, four teams were formed to better divide these duties – spatial, publication, digital, and branding, to share and organise the workload among the unit cohort.
As a branding + promotion team member, I was responsible for creating, developing and ideating the THE BUZZ brand alongside my teammates. Which involved designing distinct graphics and motifs that connect to the brand’s concept, alongside bringing the class’ ideas and interpretations to life in a manner that all team members universally accepted. We also played a role in designing apparel, physical touchpoints and promotional material for THE BUZZ – including invitations, posters, shirts and buttons.
DESIGN PROBLEM
The Murdoch Open Showcase requires a lot of task management, problem-solving and innovative thinking amongst the design team to produce a fun, informative and engaging showcase experience.
The showcase must exhibit a unique and easily identifiable theme whilst simultaneously drawing allusions to showcases of the past to generate more attendee interest. Additionally, showcase runners need to manage a larger budget in a new space – necessitating frequent communication and collaboration.
OUTCOMES
The main outcomes of the THE BUZZ showcase were to give students the opportunity to present their work to an audience, celebrate their success, and network with creative media industry professionals. While the Service Design class benefitted by building technical, team management and communication skills – thereby readying them for service design opportunities in the work field.
However, the project also extended its reach in the following areas alongside those previously mentioned:
Presented an enticing brand that clearly represents the showcase’s theme and feeling of creativity.
Showcased the broad range of talent and opportunities in creative media at Murdoch University.
Established Murdoch as the leading educational unit in creative media.
Provided Service Design students with more experience, learning material and portfolio/resume content.
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