An Exercise in Branding: #TXAC17
This was my first year attending the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church as an employee of the Texas Annual Conference. If you're unfamiliar with the event, it is basically where the United Methodist VIP's in this area of Texas meet to learn, mingle, and make decisions.
It was also the first time that TAC had an official social media manager on staff. This was a blessing because it meant that any social media work that I did would exceed the previous years. But I also wanted to use this opportunity to challenge not only my creativity in content creation, but my initiative and discipline in creating a cohesive visual campaign.
When the "Unified" logo for this year's conference was given to me, I was having trouble envisioning it for social media. To get my creativity flowing, I sketched a couple of Instagram post ideas on sticky notes and arranged them on the wall until I was happy.
Then I had to make the posts come to life.
Since part of my job entails working remotely, I was able to use some natural morning light in my home to turn my crude sketches into a reality.
If there's anything I know about Instagram is that a good "flat lay" can sell a product. In this case, we were encouraging conference attendees to download an app with the conference agenda.
My favorite image that came out of this mini photo shoot was this one that incorporates diagonal lines, and it even became our Twitter and Facebook cover photo for the weeks leading up to the conference.
You can see how the images worked seamlessly into our Instagram feed. I was really pleased with the contrast and the consistency of the reds and blues and the balance of grid lines and diagonals.
Although keeping a consistent color palette and aesthetic was more difficult while live tweeting the conference, I still managed to stay on brand in most cases. #TXAC17
Overall, it was a so much fun to manage the campaign before, during and after the week of conference. The experience enhanced my design skills and my campaign management. I know next year's campaign will flourish with this as a baseline.