Geering Up | Livestream Thumbnail Graphic Designer

Graphic designer tasked with creating thumbnails that appropriately fit each episode's topic and theme.

GU Live is one of Geering Up's online summer programs. Every weekday at 11am PST, a new livestream is hosted by a member of Geering Up's creative team and each episode discusses a different topic. My role was to create thumbnails for each episode with the objective of communicating the topic in a clear and enticing way. I was also tasked with creating a new visual theme for each season to differentiate the seasons.

This was an ongoing project that spanned throughout my entire term working with Geering Up. From this experience, I have been able to look back and watch my progression as a graphic designer. One of my biggest challenges was breaking away from convention. I started working on thumbnails from season 3 onward, so I initially relied very heavily on sticking to what was already made and made few changes. The feedback I was given was to not be afraid of taking risks and try creating designs that felt less "safe". As important as the branding was to Geering Up, it was equally important to make the thumbnails attention-grabbing. And making them all look nearly identical didn't help. As I became more comfortable working within the boundaries of Geering Up's brand, I began to slowly evolve my approach and started taking more risks.

In the last few thumbnails that I worked on, I was told that they wanted to rebrand the livestreams entirely for season 6 and give it a new name - STEM After School. I used this opportunity to create an entirely new look and feel to the livestream program. I wish I had more time with Geering Up to work on more thumbnails for season 6 because I wanted to expand my vision for what the brand's visual identity could look like. But for what I've contributed to the livestreams, I couldn't be more proud of my creative journey.

Design Tools - Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

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