CELEBRATING THE STORY OF US

Our history, our time

In 2022 Weedmaps tapped me to support their cultural celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month. The live event was streamed for all employees so even those who were remote, like myself could enjoy it. Design elements for non photo assets were heavily influenced by the patterns and restrictions present in one of the largest common factors across hispanic cultures, textiles. 

An initial set of 12 graphics was requested, with some announcment images. However the scope began to increase when we pulled in stakeholders from WMflor which is an ERG for hispanic and latin/x employees to support cultural education, events, and networking.

There was a desire to create backgrounds that represented 23 of the approved countries in a way that was more memorable. WMflor suggested flags, but I opted to go a lot deeper and find a way to represent cultures authentically, but also in a way that empowered the live music portion of the event.

Authentic representation

I did basic research to determine what were considered memorable cultural events for each country and sourced photography. After locating a handful of acceptable shots I built an action in Photoshop that created grainular echo effects with some blur, then added a gradient map. This enhanced the energy present in the photos and suffused them with a feeling that it was almost ethereal.

Check them all out below!

Can't stop, won't stop

Reception was extremely positive and I was encouraged by the art director to turn this into a direct design subsystem for WMflor as that was a long term goal of their's for the company. The end figma file was designed and organized for any designer to easily find what they were looking for, while understanding what design decisions to make while working on assets for WMflor. 

Check it out by clicking here. A sample page of the file is viewable below!