ACS Spring Meeting 2021 Social Media Graphics
Work for hire for the American Chemical Society (ACS) Meetings & Events by Lara Lee while employed at CSG Creative with permission for Lara Lee to display for self-promotion.
Background
The American Chemical Society (ACS) launched its bi-annual National Meeting & Exposition to feature thousands of presentations on new discoveries in science—now both online and in-person. The ACS Spring 2021 National Meeting & Expo became ACS’s first-ever hybrid event, right after its premier virtual event last fall.
CSG Creative Art Director Courtney Lopes designed the new visual identity for the 2021 Spring Meeting. Once the client signed off on her work, I began executing its web ad production.
Just like last Meeting, I kicked off the supporting graphics for the client’s social media marketing campaigns. Fall 2020’s social media marketing required eight profile page graphics and twelve feed graphics. In contrast, Spring 2021’s social media efforts grew to 3 profile page graphics and 59 feed graphics across 11 unique campaigns. These campaigns were fluid — messaging and art direction changed many times for 26 total rounds of edits. The end result is a variety of on-brand and off-brand graphics to maximize ad flexibility.
My Role
Digital Designer
Art Direction
Courtney Lopes
Agency
CSG Creative
By the Numbers
Branding Social Media Profiles
including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
Each National Meeting introduces itself with branded social media profiles.Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all receive profile and/or cover page graphics promoting the latest name and theme.
As social media is notorious for changes, I test each graphic across my agency’s developer testing accounts on my computer, tablet, and smartphone. Sometimes the platforms are slow to revise official specs after updating the UI, so screenshotting my test accounts is the most reliable way I determine fit.
I keep a running list of the “last known good configuration” using CSS shorthand to indicate safe areas:
- Facebook_Business Page Cover_1702x630 w/margin: 50px 310px
- LinkedIn_Company Cover_1920x350 w/margin: 13px 58px 26px
- Twitter_Universal Cover_1500x500
I mark off trickier items like profile icons with hot pink outlines in InDesign and check off the Non-Printing attribute. Enabling this attribute lets me see the safe area while I’m working but hides the guides from exporting into the final art.
Moving Social Media Posts
Above: carousel slides for Instagram Stories.
Left: an animated GIF. Its square size makes it flexible for nearly any social media channel.
Custom Mock-ups, Too
To highlight the virtual nature of the event, the client requested Photoshopping actual event speaker photos into a laptop screen showing the speakers on a video call screen.
Therefore, I built a master Photoshop mock-up template. I created an editable Smart Object. Then, I could swap speaker photos without re-adding the video call UI, or resizing and skewing each photo to the laptop.
