Be You Be Scene

How it began 🎬

Be You – Be Scene is a project that follows the success of Act of Translation. Be You – Be Scene puts the voice of international students at the centre of the stage through creative, interactive workshops and theatrical performances. Different scenes were developed: mental health, employability, accommodation, cultural diversity and LGBTQI.

I was involved as a volunteer from AFIS in the Act of Translation project for the final performance marketing. When the project was done, I had the opportunity to continue to work in the next one: Be You – Be Scene. My role was to design materials for the project including but not limited to logo, posters, and booklets. However in the Be You – Be Scene project I was also helping in the marketing strategy and performing. I will share mostly the design work I did in this section.

The design process ⏳

At the start of the project, I have received a design brief of designing the logo of project. Conversations with the project manager Feifei Liao and the artistic director Catherine Simmonds gave me more clarity on what the logo had to convey: People, Stories, Theatre. I started with sketches and drafted different concepts which were then posted on the project Facebook Group for people to vote.

For the poster design and other visual materials, due to the nature of the volunteering work, there was not much time to do multiple concepts. Fortunately, I had other volunteers from the marketing team and of course Feifei and Catherine to provide quick feedback before the materials were being distributed.

The Outcome 📸

Personal learnings 🌱

Volunteering in organisations have always given me the experience of designing graphics outcomes that will be actually used. Be You – Be Scene has been one of the biggest projects I have been involved as a volunteer. Since I do not study graphic/communication design but industrial design, I was not very confident in my skills at the beginning as I know that I might lack some knowledge that usually is taught in a graphic design course. However, I learned by doing research online, watching online tutorials on how to better create poster design and getting inspired by other people’s work. I was very fortunate to have a good team who gave me their honest feedback and suggestions to improve my design work.

My role as a creative designer volunteer was not the only thing I did as I mentioned earlier. I was also involved in the marketing strategy and a student performer. It was an amazing experience to be part of this group of people who are sharing their stories with each other and the world.