As a Design Assistant for Lehigh’s Office of Sustainability, I was often tasked with creating promotional materials and visual content for events and initiatives that addressed environmental issues across campus. One of the earliest design initiatives I led was called EcoCoin, inspired by a Penn State program with the same name. As Lehigh University sought to reduce plastic waste and the campus bookstore significantly contributes to this waste through its use of plastic bags, I designed a service centered around a wooden token. When chosen over the plastic bag, this token incentive raised money for student organizations. Once I finalized a design concept for the coin that highlighted its fundraising incentive, I created design assets like flyers and business cards to spread awareness for the campaign. The creation of these assets resulted in increased awareness of EcoCoin as well as two student organizations each earning over $500 in funding; additionally, the bookstore reported a 15% decline in the use of plastic bags.
EcoCoin Design Process
EcoCoin Marketing
EcoCoin was not the only project I worked on during my two years as a member of the Sustainability Office’s staff. For instance, I also partnered with the Bethlehem Farmer’s Market to create new marketing material that could help them strengthen their presence in the local community. I first analyzed and reordered the copy the organization provided that outlined their mission, current sustainability plans, and future goals. I then used InDesign to explore magazine layout that could accommodate this information while making it easily digestible to readers, using the Sustainability Office’s brand guidelines as a base for my color and font choices. Lastly, I searched the office’s archives for photographs of the Bethlehem Farmer’s Market that fit my new scheme; these images were incorporated into the layout to not only contrast the text, but also reinforce the farmer market’s current presence in the community and impact on local residents. Alongside other promotional materials I created for the market, my redesign generated increased attendance for students and vendors.