BIG GIVE 2026
cal band | publications design | SP'26
Big Give is UC Berkeley's annual 24 hour fundraising blitz, where along with generous donations, student groups, athletics, and academic departments can participate in competitions to win extra funding for their organization. Cal Band, UC Berkeley's collegiate marching band, participated in Big Give 2026. As the Publications Designer of the band's PR Committee, I was tasked with designing a visual marketing campaign to promote our participation and incentivize our audience to donate.
concept
Tools Used: Pinterest
For this campaign, I was assigned the following 8 deliverables:
1 Week, 3 Days, 2 Days, 1 Day, Day Of, and 1 Hour Left Countdown Post, to create hype on for Social Media.
Big Give Infographic, detailing important donation periods during the 24 hr blitz.
Big Give Email Banner, to be used in emails from our Fundraiser Coordinator, going externally to donors and alumni.
As this was my first major project in my role as Publications Designer, I drew heavily on past Cal Band Big Give campaigns for inspiration. These campaigns were exemplified by the utilization of our Blue and Gold color palette and star motifs.
Using these elements as keywords, I also used Pinterest to create a moodboard for additional creative inspiration.
One theme I became drawn to was was the Mid Century Retro design style. Knowing that our donors and alumni are from older generations, I used this style as inspiration for the campaign. Previously I had worked on a team project, where I redesigned our alumni association's logo using a similar retro theme (pictured left). This theming was received well, which convinced me to use this subject matter for this Big Give campaign, as we shared similar generational demographics.
In Illustrator, I first created a few mid-century retro filler graphics that I could reuse throughout the campaign.
Then I moved on to designing the individual layouts. Each graphic required photographic imagery of our members, in which I hand-selected from our communal gallery and edited in Photoshop. With the images I chose, I focused on selecting photos that showcased excitement and diversity of the band. This would drive the visual pathos of the campaign, and give a passionate face of the band that people were donating to.
I also made sure the design this campaign with Cal Band's style guide, which entailed specific HEX codes for our Blue and Gold color palette, and our signature typeface, Alegreya Sans. Each design was also branded with our logo and Big Give's logo.
FInal Product
Tools Used: Illustrator, Instagram, Facebook
To wrap the project up, I presented my designs to our team's Public Relations Director, who approved the designs to be posted to our various social media.
On average, each post received 5,000-10,000 views and 300 impressions. We additionally raised 200,000 dollars for Big Give, allowing us to fund new instruments and trips for the band.
Overall, this campaign was extremely successful for the band's PR. We were able to establish a solid call to action for our donors and get our entire audience involved with our fundraiser.
Big Give Infographic Page 1 & 2
Countdown Graphics
