Visual Design and Marketing for Gecko
⏱️
Context
At the time I worked there, Gecko (Gecko.rent) was an event rental business. It allowed users to list items they own online, and these items could be rented by others for parties or events - items such as chairs, cameras, lights and DJ equipment. It was a Sydney-based tech startup, but has since moved to San Francisco. Throughout my graphic design internship at Gecko, I developed and designed a range of digital marketing collateral, with a focus on social media and flyer content.
🧩
Problem Space
During its startup days, Gecko was wanting to increase public awareness of its company and its services as much as possible. One of the ways Gecko decided to do this was to post regular content across its social media platforms, in order to increase engagement and also help educate readers about Gecko’s mission and services. They also wanted tangible promotional material, such as flyers, which they could hand out to possible customers in order to garner more awareness of their business. By having a graphic design intern such as myself on board, they were able to regularly post social media content and have these flyers created by me - helping them to increase engagement from current customers, and create awareness that would attract new ones too.
💭
What were my tasks?
As a graphic design intern at Gecko, my role primarily required me to:
Design visuals and write content for social media posts - including captions, and post them across platforms.
Design flyers from scratch - and write the content that appears on them.
Refine webpages and create vector graphics for them - such as 404 Error pages.
Research trends and conduct competitor analysis - to ensure my designs were up to standard.
Social Media Posts
When creating, writing and crafting posts for social media platforms - examples of which you can see in the image - I took the following approach:
I ensured to use the company branding kit, so that the correct colours, fonts and graphics were added to the posts. This ensures my designs were consistent with other visual media that had been created by the brand.
I would regularly get feedback from senior designers and the CEO to ensure my designs matched their vision for the company’s visual identity.
I would research the best times to post these pieces of content to ensure maximum engagement from users, and always add captions and hashtags to increase reach.
Flyers and Promotional Content
When creating, designing and writing flyers, I took the following approach:
I ensured to use the branding kit, so that the correct colours, fonts and graphics were added to the post. This ensures my designs were consistent with other visual media that had been created by the brand.
I researched flyers and promotional content of similar companies/competitors, to ensure my designs were at a similar level of quality, accessibility and visual polish.
I would regularly get feedback from senior designers and the CEO to ensure my designs matched their vision for the company’s visual identity.
I would conduct A/B testing with friends, family and others in the office to see which flyers worked the best.
✅
Results & Impact
This experience developed my skillset in both visual design and UX writing, as not only was I creating the graphics, but I also had to write and edit the text, ensuring that both forms of media worked well together - and communicated the desired message to the user or reader. My work on these projects also led to an increase awareness of Gecko’s services, and an increase in engagement across their social media platforms.