Girls in STEM Olympics (GiSO) is a hackathon-esque competition and conference involving multiple disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aimed at Canadian high school students who identify as women. After first joining the team in 2018, I co-led the rebranding of the event, including establishing guidelines for branding standards. From 2019-2021, I led the creative direction for annual theme-specialized branding as well as content production on social media and event day. During the pandemic, I also helped lead the transition from a 1-day in-person delivery to a 2-day online format, implementing a live stream system and an online community for participants on Discord.
Challenge
Design a brand identity building off of previous logo work that embodies the mission of advocacy for girls in STEM in the form of networking and competitive challenge.
Outcome
An in-depth brand identity that is versatile for thematic use yet broadly clean and modern for general purposes. Implementation in various marketing materials, such as print posters, social media, motion graphics, and merchandising. The establishment of comprehensive branding guidelines to help lead future art direction.
Logo Development
Designed by Chau Nguyen and Julia Bui, 2018.
The icon logo for the Girls in STEM Olympics was designed in 2018 by myself and artist Julia Bui. The concept behind the design was to have a strong form and shape that expresses the will and resiliency of advocacy for women in the STEM industry that is also simple and versatile for various media purposes.
The logo is made up of four distinct shapes - a hexagon, a cube, triangles, and a circle - and the gender symbol for women. The shapes are meant to be representative of the STEM field, and also each has its own symbolism that broadly relates to the themes of girls in STEM:
Hexagon - symmetry/balance
Cube - perspective
Triangles - strength (strongest shape in math)
Circle - unity
In combination with each other, the shapes can also represent togetherness, with the symbol for women at the center of it all.
Brand Evolution
Following the original logo (designed by Keeva Szeto), the 2018 logo design sought to create a more clear and distinct iconography to represent the brand's identity. Colours were adjusted to be closer to a reddish pink than a hot pink to give the palette a stronger appearance. The 2020 logo refines these changes by giving the design a more unique font and adjusting the text placement to keep "girls in STEM" read logically together and placing more emphasis on the event portion, "Olympics".
Designed by Keeva Szeto, 2017.
Designed by Chau Nguyen and Julia Bui, 2018.
Revised version of the 2018 logo by Chau Nguyen, 2020.
Theme Design
Beginning in 2018, I helped introduce an annual theme design to accompany each event. This would allow the planning committee to design each year's competition and branding around a theme and make the experience more unique and engaging for participants. Over the years, the themes became much more narrowed to indicate a clearer visual style, which can be seen in the infographics below. (See the Social Media section for the 2021 event theme).
Infographic for GiSO 2018 with a subtle hacker theme. Scotiabank logo courtesy of Scotiabank.
Infographic for GiSO 2019 with a more specific spy/superhero theme based on HUD interfaces. Scotiabank logo courtesy of Scotiabank.
Infographic for GiSO 2020 with a prominent retro video game-inspired theme.
Social Media
Over the years as the event's brand design progressed, the Girls in STEM Olympics have made efforts to increase its social media presence to best target high school girls interested in STEM. The event used to be mainly focused on marketing on Facebook, but beginning in 2019, I helped transfer the primary platform to Instagram, as I found the event's core demographic is much more active on this platform. I have done various graphic design work for social media posts, but in 2020, I helped implement a marketing plan with more creative content to engage with the event's audience. This significantly increased the account's engagement and exposure, and was one of the driving forces for the large turnout at the 2020 event with over a 120% increase in registration from the previous year.
Graphic of GiSO 2019 logo with planning organization and company sponsor. Scotiabank logo courtesy of Scotiabank.
Graphic thanking participants for coming to GiSO 2019.
Promotional video highlighting the venue, Scotiabank Digital Factory. Video footage courtesy of Omer Ansari. Made in Adobe Premiere Pro.
1st graphic of a multi-post gallery detailing members of the planning committee who will be hosting "takeovers" of the Instagram account's Stories.
Story graphic version of the team takeover post.
1st graphic of a multi-post gallery detailing panellists part of the Women in STEM panel discussion.
Graphic spotlighting a panellist from the Women in STEM panel.
Sponsor graphic thanking for their support. Logos courtesy of RisingYouth grant, TakingitGlobal, Canada Service Corps, and the Government of Canada.
1st graphic of multi-post gallery highlighting prizes for participants. Trophies featured in this graphic were designed by Chau Nguyen and Lawrence Mak.
Graphic of prizes given to all participants. Postcard and stickers featured in this graphic were designed by Chau Nguyen.
Graphic of prizes given to the team winners of the "Judges Award". Prizes featured in this graphic were designed by Chau Nguyen and Lawrence Mak.
1st graphic of a multi-post gallery thanking participants for attending GiSO 2020.
Promotional video highlighting key points of the event. Made in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Video revealing theme of GiSO 2020, video games.
Part 1 of 3-post spread infographic for GiSO 2021.
Part 2 of 3-post spread infographic for GiSO 2021.
Part 3 of 3-post spread infographic for GiSO 2021. Discord logo courtesy of Discord.
Graphic announcing the opening of registration.
Graphic announcing an extension to the registration timeframe.
Graphic reminding of remaining days until the event.
Teaser video for GiSO 2021, hinting at event date. Made in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Motion graphics video revealing theme of GiSO 2021, space exploration. Made in Adobe After Effects and Illustrator.
Recap Videos
In 2018 and 2019 when GiSO ran in-person, the media team filmed and edited a recap video each year to showcase notable highlights from the event. I assisted in the storyboarding and editing of the 2018 video with Omer Ansari, then led the video direction and process (as well as contributed to videography) in 2019.
Live Stream Broadcasting
Since 2020, GiSO has run in a 2-day online format where the entire event's activities take place in a Discord server and through hosted live streams using OBS throughout each day. For the 2020 and 2021 events, I co-led the coordination of the live broadcast, designing motion graphics, and background templates as well as editing pre-recorded opening and closing ceremony videos. These live streams were proven to be very well-executed and significantly contributed to participants' excitement and engagement with the event.
Stream waiting graphic.
Video thumbnail graphic for the Women in STEM Panel. Gyptech logo courtesy of Gyptech.
Border stream overlay graphic. Gyptech logo courtesy of Gyptech.
Motion graphic animation of a countdown while waiting for the stream to start, including a scrolling grid in the background, a sponsor reel and a song spotlight. Gyptech logo courtesy of Gyptech.
Stream ending graphic.
Winner graphic during closing ceremonies.
Special thanks to Julia Bui, Omer Ansari, Phoebe Luo and Lawrence Mak for various design support and collaboration, as well as the Girls in STEM Olympics planning committee and Rick Hansen Robotics for the opportunity to be involved in this event.