How Scarlett Olorenshaw designed this year’s AUBSU Freshers' Week

I had already submitted a proposal of my initial ideas during this time, and I was excited to continue the development of my bug-themed designs. I landed on this idea after considering my favourite parts of living in Bournemouth (the abundance of nature reserves, parks and forested areas) as well as thinking about how I could ensure that all students could feel represented by the work.

I began by creating the logo, as this was a major part of the project. My first few concepts involved turning the “2026” numbers into different characters, such as a worm twisted into the shape of a two, but whilst these were fun, they didn’t feel bold enough for a logo, and I worried that at a small scale they would become difficult to read. I eventually settled on a more subtle design that referenced different bugs without showing them directly. For example, the polka-dotted “two” references the spots on a ladybird, whilst the “six” incorporates a butterfly’s wing. At the beginning of the project, the finished logo was one solid colour (similar to how it appears on the tote bag), but I changed this later on to ensure cohesion with the rest of the assets.

Now that I had the logo, I could start to develop the tote bag design. I pretty much knew exactly how I wanted it to look straight away, which made this the easiest and most enjoyable part of the project for me. I toyed around with a few alternative concepts but ultimately settled on finalising my initial sketch, as I loved the idea of showing a range of Freshers' Week activities all together in one big circular frame.

The actual process of filling in the shapes of the characters and plant decorations required a lot of consideration, as I was working in a way that was unusual for me. The process felt almost sculptural as I was carving out the shapes and considering the negative space, rather than lining and colouring like normal. Whilst I love symmetry, I did make sure to break up the mirrored image in places such as swapping the worm for a caterpillar. I felt this made for a much more visually interesting image. During check-in meetings with the Student Union, we discussed colour options and I originally proposed a lime green print on blue. However, to meet the SU brand identity better, we settled on white print on pink which I was very happy with.

Creating the character assets was another highlight of the project for me. Before starting my designs, I had been given a list of Freshers' activities that I could use to guide my illustrations. I particularly enjoyed making the “Freshers' Fair” asset, which shows my bugs engaging with different society stalls. I have a friend in the volleyball society, so I had to put a reference to that in there for her! Alongside a range of larger assets involving multiple characters, I created a few individuals that were less specific and multi-purpose, such as a dancing butterfly.

Due to working fairly quickly, I also had time to animate a waving bee to be used for a “coming soon” teaser. I’m not a particularly savvy animator, but thinking about the simple cartoon styles of shows, such as Adventure Time, helped a lot when working out how to make my character move. To finish up the project, I designed a few borders for social media posts, as well as a banner for the SU website.

Seeing the first few Instagram posts using my illustrations on AUBSU’s page was a very exciting experience, but I would have to say that visiting the Freshers' Fair itself was the most rewarding part of doing this project. Seeing students wearing my tote bags and hearing how positively they were received was a great moment for me and has made me feel more confident in my work overall.

As I go into my final year at AUB, I hope to take what I’ve learned this summer and to keep improving as an illustrator so that I can take more opportunities like this!