How a design system can impact social media presence

Design and writing by Charmaine Esmeralda

At the end of November, I randomly reached out to Boss Women Collective via Instagram asking about their design, and the next thing you know, I was on a phone call with Riana Singh applying to be their graphic designer for their social media. Back then, I was working on Maarte Studio, which is a design practice for womxn-owned brands and businesses. While I was at the early stage of developing the design practice, I thought it was a good chance for Gwen and me to launch into our first project that aligns with our mission of being more involved in the feminist space. My professional background in design started at The Assembly (a well-being club for women), where I designed a lot of assets for their Instagram stories and print in the clubhouse. It was the catalyst to what came out to be one of my goals in my design career: to work with womxn who empower one another in any industry that makes a positive impact. I also wanted to keep promoting growth and empathetic understanding of each other’s similarities and differences through working with brands like them.

As I start a few projects for BWC, I reviewed a lot of the brand guidelines, so I knew what pre-existing rules and guidelines I could work within. Although I love all the designs so far, I thought it would be nice to improve the overall art direction. I started strategizing with the events and features like the Holiday Giveaway. However, things were picking up some speed, and the end of the year was dawning, meaning a recap and full refresh is on the horizon. December and January were busy, and with the new templates I had to create, I just knew I wanted to give BWC’s social media a fresher and spicier look for this new year.

The extensive style guide we use to make each post and design visually cohesive and to streamline our process throughout social media.

Enter February, the workload was intense, and I needed some more help. I introduced Gwen to Figma, and that’s when I started setting up a cleaner system for us to be able to collaborate well together. With the events and impending workload, I knew I had to take a more systematic approach with how we collaborate and create these designs. Bless Figma, as it made the transition from Adobe easier and we were able to work on multiple projects at the same time.

The first few illustrations I did using the app Procreate.

While Gwen worked on designing the new quotes, I streamlined the templates and started developing the system and found the most excellent resource for an illustration set. I was a bit hesitant to use it, but if I was going to make the system exceptional and scalable, I have to swallow my illustrator pride and use a resource. Little did we know it was the best decision so far.

Templates I made for the design team to edit for our weekly/recurring posts.

The illustrations were all fully vector, editable, and with a bit of help from the pen tool, we were able to add to the shapes as well. Playing with the scale and the design composition also played a huge part in coming up with fresh visuals. With this brand new confidence from a better system, we were able to produce content in a more efficient and refined way.

The illustration set was fully vectorized, which allowed us to adjust colors and other internal components within each piece — Gwen’s original works. Gwynette is a Filipino American Graphic Designer. She joined the BWC design team in November of 2019. She’s born and raised in the ever-changing city of San Francisco and an older sister of 4. At 23 years old, she is currently a student at the Academy of art University, honing her skills as a visual designer. She has received scholarships and grants based on her achievements in school. Her work is displayed on campus, marking excellence and expertise of visual communication, recognized by the creative director of the department. She is expecting to graduate by Fall 21.

In March, as BWC grew and we needed more help, I decided to take in some excellent designers so I can tackle some other design projects outside BWC’s social media. The website and newsletters have been needing some love and attention, and I knew we have to give ourselves some breathing room. Thanks to Asana, collaborating with a team has never been easier. I onboarded Cortney and Maitri; altogether, we started working on the social media content for BWC for the whole month of March.

Cortney’s works, Cortney, specializes in concept and brand development, styling, photography, layout and design, content curation, and social media marketing.

I spent a bit of time guiding Cortney and Maitri through our design system and all the other apps we were using. After a day at The Assembly with Cortney creating from our Design Playground, she took the illustration system to a whole new level, where she added more colors and shapes. She also created original illustrations for our “Cookin’ with BWC” series.

“The design system has helped shape how I design the current assets and has helped me create content that aligns with the theme and brand that BWC has and represents. Our brand is what sets us apart. I think it’s important for things to look unified to a certain extent to build rapport and engagement. Most importantly, it’s very pleasing to the eye when there’s a sense of uniformity” -Maitri.

Maitri’s works. Maitri is currently a graduating senior studying Computer Science and Economics at UC Berkeley from Pleasanton, CA. After graduating, she will be a software engineer at NerdWallet, a personal finance company. Maitri is passionate about entrepreneurship, design, education, sustainability, women in tech, and social good (she likes a lot of things!!). In her free time, she likes to read, draw, cook, and to make bucket lists. She joined the BWC community as an ambassador in January and shortly became a designer after. She loves the community that BWC provides and the opportunity to improve her design skills.

A system won’t always be this magical thing that will eliminate all conflicts in the design process, but it is there as a guide and a structure that is meant to be followed and nurtured. Allowing people, whether you have a design background or not, to play and make mistakes are essential steps in reaching a more robust system that is beautiful and scalable.

A brand’s social media presence is a cumulative effort of everyone involved from concepts, strategy, curation, marketing, and design. Thanks to the womxn I work with at Boss Women Collective, we’re able to exist in the digital space with purpose and good intentions.

Check out BWC: https://www.instagram.com/bosswomencollective/.

Check out my Behance page: https://www.behance.net/charmaiesmeral1