INFO
MuirStock is an annual festival held by Muir College at the University of California, San Diego. After three years dormant due to COVID, I was brought in to rebuild its identity across merch, campaign, and event collateral for a student body that had never experienced it.
MY ROLE
Visual Designer
TIMELINE
September 2022 – April 2023
TEAM
1 Manager · 2 Student Activities Coordinators · 1 Designer
TOOLS
Adobe CC · Instagram · Later · Figma· Canva· Procreate
The Challenge
Ensuring student engagement to the event and retention for the event as the current student population has not heard of the tradition due to its postponement for 3 years aka Covid.
The Solution
By modernizing the event's identity, and student-centered incentives, we rebuilt excitement around Muirstock, transforming low awarness into meaniningful partripcation.
00 | GROUND ZERO - FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION
01
RESEARCH & FINDINGS
• Data Collection
• Branding Analysis
• Mood-boarding
02
DESIGN, REFINE, & RESULTS
• Logo
• Pin Guide
• Merch Iterations + Final Products
• Event Marketing
01 | RESEARCH AND FINDINGS
READING THE ROOM
During the initial phase, I focused on gathering as much information about MuirStock and the experience prior to Covid. Drawing from previous ideas, we aimed to create a dynamic inclusive event that reflected the under-represented musical taste of the Muir community and UCSD as a whole.
Our outreach through instagram and Muir College Newletters generated 109 student responses, giving us a clear picture of preferred generes. Beyond the formal survey, student shared through informally through word of mouth, valuable context that supported our interpretation of the data.
SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY
SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY
Rap
RnB
Indie/
Alternative
02 | DESIGN AND REFINE
TUNING
INTO VIBES
As we collected all our information from our surveys, I immediately started mood-boarding, focusing on what the aesthetic was previously at its core. MuirStock was an open-air free-for-all concert rooted in celebration inspired by Woodstock This was to be the festival that everyone looked forwards to and the "sun-god" (all-campus wide music festival) of the older UCSD generations. The photos below I loved their use of color, typo graphic layout and also served as initial inspiration for the outcome of the event; community, and unity all in one by music.
MUIR PRESENTS
UNITY
COMMUNITY
VIBRANT
VALUE 01
COMMUNITY
VALUE 02
INDEPENDENCE
VALUE 03
MUSICAL EXPRESSION
Curated, not created — all references pulled externally for mood and direction.
2.A | THE FOUNDATION
My first step was to revamp the primary MuirStock logo into a strong, recognizable logo that served as a trunk. Every year, MuirStock evolves into new themes, new energy, new visual direction, but the logo is the root that holds it all together. No matter how far the branches grow, you always know it’s MuirStock.
Credit to Richard Tashman for paving the first ever visual design for Muirstock.
→
LOGO VARIATION · Primary Muir Stock Logo by Siul Maduena
For our thematic logo variant, I took inspiration from fluid typography, and interlocking geometry. I wanted to create a visual puzzle that warps to fit a center vinyl label, giving a nod to retro festival culture without placing the logo in an era.
FROM SPEC
TO DESIGN
THE GOODIES THAT STARTED THE CRAZE
The iteration process during these months meant exploring directions that got scrapped as our artist choices changed. I settled on our core logo and our thematic variant since these were to be collectibles for the years to come as "Exclusive Concert pins" for each year as the genre of music and look changes.
MANUFACTURER SPEC SHEET · ENAMEL PIN GUIDE
PANTONE
EQUIVALENT COLOR
ENAMEL PIN GUIDE
28005F
PMS 2765
C9FFB4
PMS 358
EC1C24
PLATING OUTLINE
ITERATION #1
ITERATION #2
FINAL #1
FINAL #2
TOTE STYLE #1 ITERATION
TOTE STYLE #2 ITERATION
TOTE STYLE #1 FINAL
TOTE STYLE #2 FINAL
Beyond the design, I made the deliberate decision for the product itself with my manager. Most event merch tote bags were single-use throwaways that were flimsy enough to get discarded after one week. I ensured that the MuirStock tote bag was heavy duty canvas, built for repeated use. The goal was for it to become a campus staple that students would favor for running errands, not just something to be stuffed in a drawer. Functional, durable, and intentional to actually be seen leaving a lasting impression as many sought to get one and resulted in ongoing organic promotion.
CLOSE UP ON PINS AND DESIGN #1
DESIGN #2
2.B | DESIGN AND REFINE
The Visual Language
COLOR PALETTE - THREE color System
PRIMARY
#28005F
SECONDARY
#C9FFB4
TEXT
#FFFFFF
TYPOGRAPHY
DISPLAY / HEADERS
GOLIA GOLIA
BODY / SUBTEXT
ERIC MACHAT
MUIRSTOCK
2023 . TINASHE . JOYCE WRICE
2.C | FINAL Results
THE COUNTDOWN
With everything set in place, we needed to build traction for the event. I developed a marketing plan that was executed in phases teasers, artist announcement, event info, and content the day of. The goal was passive buzz and word of mouth.
THE PLAN
Every post was launched using Later, helping to build momentum appropriately toward April 13. We started with an infographic about Muirstock to help lead into teasing location and date before dropping any information on the actual artist.
The choice to drop merch was incentive for filling our venue while at the same time reaping engagement to show the opener.
TEASERS
These were the story teasers posted after our infographic about what Muirstock is. These were approved by artist's agents as they wanted to approve of their artists overall representation even within the teaser launch, hence why they both aren't carrying audio. Granted, these had our audience hooked which allowed for the remaining drops to be even more seamless for the weeks to come. Alongside these story posts, Celebrating Muir College Week is the week long of festivities leading up to Muirstock that also required marketing which I also made.
Joyce Wrice Teaser
Tinashe Teaser
All graphics below were created by me and formatted for instagram layouts and Tv advertising signage. I also included some posts made the day of the concert to do a last push.
04 A dancing Future
FULL VOLUME
At the peak of student life and campus engagment being so detached, this concert healed many students who sought to experience music on campus they resonated with. From the usual slow pace events or rave based concerts, this truly embodied the spirit of not only what MuirStock stands for as the first music festival for the University of California, San Diego but truly changed the trajectory of many other events for the following years.
Seeing it all come together was the moment I understood what it means to design something that makes people feel seen and truly know how design can deliver an experience like no other. I special thanks to Hana Nathan, Isabel Alvarez, Kaylee Howard, Triton Tv and UCSD Talent agency for being the dream team.
View how Muirstock went while I was Chair 2023-24!
Click me!
Muirstock / case study / 2022-23
Siul Maduena