Role

Visual Designer

Team

2 Design Leads
2 Visual Designers

Timeline

8 Months

Tools

Illustrator
After Effects
Figma
Procreate

Final Designs

01. Background

What's Hack the North?

Hack the North is Canada’s largest hackathon, drawing over 7,000 applicants and welcoming 1,200 talented students from around the world to the University of Waterloo. For 36 hours, these student hackers dream and build big and bring their wildest ideas to life! This year marked Hack the North’s 10th anniversary. To honor this occasion, our design team embraced the challenge of creating branding that paid tribute to our rich history and the countless hackers who’ve shaped Hack the North into the extraordinary event it is today.

My Role

As one of two graphic designers on a 40+ member organizing team, I played a key role in bringing our brand identity to life by creating illustrations and designs for the website and application form, crafting eye-catching social media graphics, producing physical and digital signage, and developing dynamic motion graphics, all designed to celebrate the creativity, innovation, and spirit of Hack the North!

02. Ideation

Brainstorming the branding

As this year marked the 10th iteration of the event, we aimed for the branding to reflect both the history of past events and the sentiments we wanted to capture for this milestone. Given the time constraints, we worked to complete the branding and website simultaneously. To guide our brainstorming process, we outlined key goals for the team, who then ideated and presented various concepts through mood boarding!

Goals we wanted to achieve with our visual identity

Goal #1

Continuing to inspire hackers to dream and build big 🌈✨

Goal #2

Represent what we’ve done in the past 10-years and a new feeling for the branding! 🎉

Goal #3

Ensure we don’t give off a corporate vibe as this is a student-run event!

Creating and developing visual concepts

Narrowing it down....

Once we finished our mood boards, our team came together to present our ideas and give each other feedback on areas that could be improved or expanded upon. After a great discussion, we narrowed it down to 3-4 final concepts. My team member, another graphic designer, and I were then assigned the task of refining these ideas into a complete brand identity. We worked on developing color palettes, visual elements, and illustrations, all while striving to blend the different ideas into a cohesive and unified theme.

03. Iteration & Feedback

Going back the drawing board

With continuous feedback from the team, my fellow graphic designer and I kept refining the theme for Hack the North's 10th anniversary. Building on the concepts that had already been approved, we both gravitated towards a nostalgic, retro glitch theme. It not only referenced the tech aesthetics of the past but also added a futuristic twist!

We wanted the design to feel exciting and bold, so we chose a highly saturated color palette and incorporated a glowing effect into the visual elements to make everything feel more dynamic.

After presenting our refined concepts, the team was on board with the direction we were taking, and we had a clearer vision for the brand identity. With just a few more tweaks and suggestions, we finalized the branding guidelines for the website and the entire event.

04. Branding

Final Look

For the final product, we warmed up the primary color palette, added secondary colors for better accessibility, and gave the organization’s logo a fresh update to match this year’s branding. In the end, we were really happy with how everything came together. The branding perfectly captured the energy of Hack the North’s 10th anniversary, blending nostalgia with a forward-looking vibe. It felt bold, dynamic, and inclusive, setting the tone for a very memorable event!

05. Final Designs

A look into what I did at Hack the North!

Social Media

I created social media graphics using our new visual identity to promote various Hack the North initiatives and campaigns. For this year we reached a record-breaking amount of likes and engagement on our posts!

Signage

As this year’s event was fully in-person, signage played a key role in building an immersing experience and increasing attendee engagement with the events Hack the North has to offer! Some of the signage initiatives I worked on were for the Empowerment Lounge and Sticker QR challenge.

Empowerment Lounge

Signage Hunt

Stickers

For the free merchandise given out to all the hackers, I created various sticker designs that referenced key elements of our branding and spaces. Spaces refer to the multiple areas dedicated to areas of learning that Hack the North hosted which were AI, Game Development, Entrepreneurship & Product Design and Blockchain.

Motion Graphics

I created motion graphics to help our design elements adapt glitch effects and provide more dynamic movement. These designs were used for both our organization's website and presentation templates!

06. Reflections

In summary...

I've had the incredible opportunity to work on Hack the North for these 8 months. Throughout this time, I've learned and grown so much as a designer, all thanks to the amazing organizing team and the exciting projects I got to be a part of. It’s been a truly rewarding experience!

🤝 Collaboration is key

A lot of the work I did involved collaborating not only with the design team but also with other interdisciplinary teams across the organization. It taught me how to navigate cross-functional teamwork, understand different perspectives, and find solutions that work for everyone involved. It was a great opportunity to strengthen my collaboration skills and build a deeper appreciation for how every team plays a vital role in bringing a project to life!

🔑 Advocating for your designs

This was also the first time I had to present my designs to a larger audience and gather feedback. I learned to balance accepting constructive criticism with standing by my design choices when necessary. This helped create a healthy space for open communication, ultimately leading to a stronger final product. It was a valuable experience in learning how to collaborate effectively and confidently defend my work.

🌟 Resourcefulness

Last, one of the biggest lessons I learned at Hack the North was how to be resourceful. There were times when I was given projects and wasn’t sure where to start, but I quickly discovered how valuable the Internet could be. When my teammates were busy, I found in-depth tutorials and articles online that helped me tackle even the most specific challenges. It taught me how to be proactive and solve problems independently.