Design Collective Case Study
Overview
After noticing a lack of inter-cohort community within the Communication Design major at Miami University, I promoted and organized an event called Board Game Day, which was an independent project that combined board games, food, and designers. 32 out of the ~100 design students attended. Design Collective was subsequently formed in November 2024, Miami University’s first student-run organization that offers networking and professional development opportunities for creatives. I served as the Co-Event Coordinator, promoting and hosting 10 events throughout the semester.
53 members joined after 4 months
Average attendance of 20 students
162 social media followers
A Panel of Passion
Design Collective's "Graphic Design Beyond the Degree: Real-World Insights" was a panel with three Miami Alumni held in April 2025. I created, promoted, and moderated the event with help from Miami’s Career Center. As the panel moderator, I experimented with active audience participation during the session, having people stand up and talk to each other between panelist questions. Audience members gained confidence in their creative career, got many networking opportunities, and received advice from Macey Chamberlin from Lemon Grenade Creative, Grace Hall from Medpace, and Maria Johnson from vineyard vines.
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Event Planning
STEP ONE
I reached out to Miami's Career Center, pitched the idea, and secured funding for the event. Potential young alumni panelists were researched, ranked by priority, and then contacted. The goal was to get a diverse background of individuals, including industry type and years of experience.
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Marketing the Event
STEP TWO
With help from the Career Center, I crafted the event's description and designed flyers. The Career Center was able to get advertisements displayed on Miami's TV slide system. Social media posts were also created.
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Event Day
STEP THREE
The day of the panel arrived and the turnout was great! There were 32 audience members in attendance, which was similar to the number we were expecting. There was a great variety of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors!
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An Interactive Panel
STEP FOUR
I elevated the panel by not just asking the panelists questions, but also the audience. As a result, audience members were encouraged to introduce themselves to each other in the spirit of networking. Some took the opportunity to greet the panelists as well.
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Building Insight
STEP FIVE
During the panel, I summarized their responses after each question, which made them feel heard AND gave more opportunities for the audience members to absorb their knowledge.
From left to right: Macey Chamberlin, me, Grace Hall, Maria Johnson
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Continued Discussion
STEP SIX
Many audience members stayed for over an hour after the panel to continue the discussion. My survey showed they appreciated the panel but wanted more summaries from me as moderator.
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Future Engagement
STEP SEVEN
A group picture was taken for all in attendance to post on social media! It's always important to follow up with members and encourage future engagement.
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Acknowledgement
Shoutouts to Taylor Conteh and Madeleine Hood for making this event possible.
Other Events
Our team carpooled Design Collective members to head down to Cincinnati's SEGD Portfolio Review and Networking event. It's important for members to get portfolio advice while also connecting with other designers in the larger community.
The Design Collective team surveyed the Communication Design majors and found that most students felt unfamiliar with InDesign. With this insight, I helped create an event that used InDesign templates for members to edit and customize. The template introduced them to many InDesign basics, such as type settings, paragraph styles, image embedding, color swatches, and more.
Our first official event was an Adobe Workshop, which helped audience members enhance their hard skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and After Effects. I created the posters and advertised the event.
Design Collective hosted the 'Absolutely Tote-worthy' event as a fun, hands-on way to build community. Attendees screen-printed designs onto tote bags, jeans, and hoodies.
'Designing Love Letters' was an event for Miami's creatives to stretch their design muscles with a holiday-themed prompt. Other holiday-themed design events involved Halloween and Easter.
For this event, professional headshots were available for all members in a reserved photography studio.
I helped design and man the Design Collective booth at Sparkfest, Miami's annual public festival of student creativity, to promote our events and resources.
