Defining OMB UMN 2025 Through Visual Identity: A Case Study
Visual Identity / Graphic Design / Collateral / Social Media / Student Organization Project
Designed the visual identity for OMB UMN 2025, including the logo, Graphic Standard Manual, and supergraphics, ensuring consistency across all media.
First things first
What exactly is OMB UMN?
In a nutshell, Orientasi Mahasiswa Baru (OMB) is a university-wide orientation program at Multimedia Nusantara University designed to welcome new students. It is held every year as an annual event to introduce freshers to the university environment. According to Multimedia Nusantara University’s official website, every year around 2,000 to 3,000 new students join the university, and all of them are required to participate in the OMB program.
The why
So if it’s an annual event why bother to create a new visual identity? Because every year, OMB UMN always brings a fresh and unique visual identity for each batch of students. Here’s the example:
The Instagram look of OMB UMN 2023 and 2024
Source: OMB UMN Official Instagram Account
My role
I was the Lead Designer. From creating the visual assets, quality control, supervising my team, coordinating with other teams, to deciding when it was safe to publish... I did it all.
So, how do I achieve that goal?
Here is the process in a nutshell
Research
Understanding OMB UMN
After being selected as the Lead Designer for OMB UMN 2025, the very first thing I did was research. And yes, even though I had previously been part of OMB UMN as a PIC, I knew I needed to understand it from a designer's perspective. Honestly, the research surprised me. There were so many things about OMB's design and visual identity that I had never really noticed before. Looking at it through a design lens gave me a completely different understanding of what OMB represents. Before diving into the design process, here are some of the key findings I discovered about OMB UMN. These insights became the foundation for defining the overall visual tone and creative direction of the project.
Findings
Honoring Tradition
With its strong ceremonial vibe, OMB UMN features a series of formal and symbolic moments rooted in long-standing traditions. This is reflected in key activities such as the opening ceremony, the student pledge, and the open senate session. Together, these elements create a new student welcoming experience that feels meaningful.
Where Ceremony Meets Excitement
While OMB UMN has a ceremonial tone, it is equally defined by energy, positivity, and an encouraging atmosphere. Through various moments captured on Instagram, we can see the joy and enthusiasm of both the organizers and new students. These snapshots highlight not just the formal rituals, but also the excitement, camaraderie, and sense of community that make the experience memorable. In this way, OMB UMN balances tradition with an uplifting and motivating environment, helping new students feel welcomed, inspired, and ready to begin their university journey.
Embracing the Journey Forward
OMB UMN is centered on the journey and transformation from high school students to university students. Through a variety of media and activities, the program emphasizes that this transition marks a significant new chapter, one that represents growth, change, and new responsibilities. This journey is framed as an important step forward, encouraging new students to embrace their role with confidence, enthusiasm, and a renewed sense of purpose.
Design findings
After refreshing my memory about OMB (because, let's be honest... I had forgotten quite a few things too), I started reviewing designs from previous years to better understand OMB's visual identity. I also had several conversations with the previous lead designer to learn more about the design principles and rationale behind the visual system.
At first glance, OMB's design seemed relatively simple. But the more I studied it, the more I realized how much thought went into the details. There were subtle patterns, visual rules, and design decisions that I hadn't noticed before, and understanding those nuances became an important foundation before creating anything new.
Designing Identity
Balancing Freshness and Consistency
Since OMB UMN already has an established visual identity, I just need to focused on evolving the existing style rather than creating something completely new. I reviewed the core elements such as colors, typography, supergraphic, layout and identified areas where subtle updates could reflect the current year while staying true to the brand.
What elements must remain unchanged to preserve the brand’s identity?
To preserve the OMB UMN brand identity, certain elements must remain unchanged. These include the consistent use of gradients, clean typography, and the clear grid layout that organizes information. Positive imagery of students should also remain, as it helps create an engaging and welcoming atmosphere.
This year, there’s room for evolution by incorporating more modern design trends like glassmorphism. While the new logo, color palette, and supergraphics were mandatory updates, we decided to use glassmorphism throughout our Instagram feeds and icons to give them a fresh, contemporary look and introduce more visual variation for the year.
How can this year’s version reflect the theme, mood, or focus of the current event?
This year, we incorporated sky-themed elements like clouds and lens flares into the design to reflect the brand’s logo, which features a bird. These visuals emphasize freedom, growth, and aspiration, aligning with the theme of student transformation while keeping the overall identity consistent.
How will the updated design maintain consistency across all touchpoints?
Once I had gathered enough insights and identified the areas that needed improvement, I started exploring the visual assets needed for the new identity. The logo itself had already been briefed by the executive committee, so my role was mainly to bring their direction to life. However, the supergraphics, color palette, and typography were entirely up to me to explore and develop. I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty intense process. The timeline was incredibly tight since the visual identity had to be finalized before being applied across every touchpoint. Everything moved fast. Because of that, I didn't have the chance to document every step of the process, but here are a few explorations that I managed to capture along the way.
P.S. The logo and supergraphic sketches were lost, so they’re missing from this case study. Safe to say, this taught me to document everything LOL.
Through this process, I learned how to communicate my ideas, intentions, and design decisions more effectively especially to people without a design background. There were a few requests that simply couldn't be executed due to technical limitations that aren't always obvious to non-designers. Instead of just saying "no," I learned the importance of explaining the reasoning behind those limitations in a way that was easy to understand, while also finding practical compromises that worked for everyone involved.
P.S. The logo and supergraphic sketches were lost, so they’re missing from this case study. Safe to say, this taught me to document everything LOL.
Through this process, I learned how to communicate my ideas, intentions, and design decisions more effectively especially to people without a design background. There were a few requests that simply couldn't be executed due to technical limitations that aren't always obvious to non-designers. Instead of just saying "no," I learned the importance of explaining the reasoning behind those limitations in a way that was easy to understand, while also finding practical compromises that worked for everyone involved.
Creating Graphic Standard Manual
Turning design decisions into a scalable system.
After all the assets were completed and approved, I put them together into a Graphic Standards Manual. The Graphic Standard Manual not only lays out the rules and guidelines for using each design element but also explains why each color, shape, and typeface was chosen. This way, the visual identity can be applied consistently and with intention across all media and platforms.
P.S. Several conceptual philosophies were developed by the Executive Committee, and the division logo designs were not part of my scope of work.
From that day on, the GSM became the "bible" for every design we created, guiding everything from website layouts to social media assets, merchandise, and even the color grading of photos and videos. One of my biggest takeaways from creating the GSM was this: always document everything as clearly as possible. Even with detailed guidelines in place, there were still plenty of questions once the designs started being implemented across different media. That experience taught me that a good design system isn't just about defining visual rules it's about making those rules easy for everyone to understand and apply consistently.
But to be fair, I had already expected that to happen. That's why I organized a GSM Breakdown Session, attended by the three divisions that would work with the guidelines the most: the Design, Documentation, and Website teams.
During the session, I walked everyone through the GSM in as much detail as possible, explaining not just what the guidelines were, but also why they existed and how to apply them correctly in different situations. To wrap things up, I also prepared a short hands-on exercise where everyone got to apply the guidelines themselves. It was a simple way to reinforce the concepts, clear up any remaining questions, and make sure everyone felt confident using the GSM before the actual production phase began.
In reality, the journey of helping everyone fully understand the GSM was much longer than just one workshop. We held several follow-up sessions to help the team explore the guidelines, ask questions, and gain confidence in applying them across different types of design work. I won't go into every single session here (otherwise this case study would be way too long lol), but long story short, everyone gradually became familiar with the system and started using it consistently.
Once the team had a solid understanding of the GSM, it was finally time to move into the production phase, where the visual identity came to life across every medium and touchpoint, from digital platforms to printed materials and event experiences.
Creating Media
From guidelines to execution
With the GSM finalized, it was finally time to bring it to life. The production phase was mainly divided into two categories: print media and digital/social media. Since I've already showcased the final output in the Product Showcase section, I won't go through each design one by one here.
Instead, I'd like to focus on something that happened behind the scenes: how I managed the project and led the team through an incredibly tight production timeline. Designing the assets was only half of the challenge. The bigger task was making sure everyone stayed aligned, knew what they were responsible for, and could deliver consistent design under significant time pressure.
Managing brief
First things first: managing the briefs. With dozens of design requests coming in, each with its own deadline, requirements, and stakeholders the first challenge wasn't designing. It was staying organized. To manage everything, I used Trello as the team's central hub for design briefs. Thankfully, I was able to build on the board structure from the previous year, so I didn't have to start from scratch. Instead, I focused on adapting and improving it to fit our workflow.
Every design brief was documented as clearly as possible. I included everything the team needed to get started, from objectives and deadlines to asset requirements and references, so designers could spend less time asking questions and more time designing. Trello It gave me a clear overview of every deliverable and made it easy to track the team's progress. As each task moved from one stage to the next, I could quickly see what was on track, what needed attention, and where I should step in to help.
From the card names alone, you can probably already guess how the workflow was structured. One thing that might not be so obvious, though, is just how many rounds of review, approval, and quality control each design had to go through before it was considered final. It definitely wasn't a linear process. Many assets went back and forth between team member, me, and design team supervisor multiple times before they were approved. A single piece could go through several iterations to ensure it met both the GSM standards and the needs of the requesting division.
But the workflow often looked something like this:
But what happened when unexpected requests came in? Or when another division suddenly needed a design that hadn't been planned for?
Since situations like these were inevitable, I created a Design Request Form to standardize the submission process and keep everything organized.
Any division that needed support from the Design Team was required to submit this form before a project could enter our production pipeline. The form collected all the essential information we needed such as the purpose of the design, required deliverables, references, deadlines, and other specific requirements.
Of course, not every situation was ideal. There were plenty of urgent requests where the submission requirements couldn't be fully met. Even so, having a standardized request process still made a huge difference. It gave us a consistent system to fall back on, helped us stay organized despite the chaos, and made it much easier to keep track of priorities when multiple requests arrived at the same time.
One of the biggest lessons I learned from managing design briefs was not to panic when everything seems urgent. When dozens of requests are coming in at the same time, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, I learned to step back and prioritize: What needs to be done first? What can wait? What's truly urgent, and what's simply important? It definitely wasn't easy, especially with an incredibly tight production timeline, but it was manageable with the right system and a little help from a cup of coffee lol.
Managing people
With the brief in place, the next challenge wasn't the design, it was the people. Unlike a design brief, people are dynamic. Assigning tasks isn't just about asking, "Who's the best at this?" or "What's most urgent?" It's also about understanding the person behind the work. Our team worked in a demanding and often stressful environment, and there were times when everyone, myself included, felt mentally drained. As the lead designer, I saw my role as more than coordinating deliverables. Before assigning a single task, I sat down with each of my six teammates for a casual one-on-one conversation. We talked about their preferred responsibilities, how they liked to work, the project brief, and sometimes things completely unrelated to design. Those conversations helped me understand what motivated them, what challenged them, and what was happening in their lives that might affect how they worked.
I won't share those personal stories here, of course, but they taught me one of the most valuable lessons about leadership: managing people is never just about assigning tasks. It's about understanding their emotions, respecting their boundaries, and creating an environment where they can do their best work. Designers aren't machines that can work 24/7. They're people with lives, responsibilities, and challenges beyond the project. And recognizing that made me a better leader.
Now that I had a better understanding of who I was working with, it was time to assign responsibilities. During my consultation with the previous design lead, I was advised to split the team into two groups: one focused on social media and the other on offline merchandise. It was a solid system, but our circumstances were different. This project came with a much tighter timeline while still requiring the same amount of deliverables. Instead of separating the team by medium, I assigned everyone to work across both online and offline assets. This gave us more flexibility and allowed the workload to shift whenever priorities changed.
Since offline materials had strict printing deadlines, they became our first priority. For more demanding deliverables, teammates worked in pairs to speed up production while maintaining quality. Throughout the process, I continuously reviewed their work, provided feedback, and stepped in whenever someone felt stuck or needed extra support. Meanwhile, the online deliverables progressed at a slower pace. Rather than trying to tackle everything at once, we intentionally delayed some of the digital assets until the time-sensitive offline work was safely completed.
Design review
One more thing I wanted to highlight is the design review process. With only one lead designer overseeing dozens of deliverables, reviewing everything in detail wasn't always realistic. I needed a system that allowed me to give feedback quickly while maintaining a consistent visual quality. To make the review process more efficient, I followed a simple checklist in an order.
Color & background, supergraphics, layout, copywriting and finally exploration. I always started by checking whether the design aligned with the campaign's visual guidelines, if the colors, backgrounds, and basic composition were correct, I moved on to the supporting graphic elements, overall layout and ensure the copy provided by the PR team is accurate and free of typos. Only after those fundamentals were in place did I look at creative exploration and originality. This priority order was intentional. Our goal at the time wasn't to create the most experimental visuals possible it was to deliver a consistent design within a tight deadline. If an exploration was too ambitious or required significant revision, I would put it on hold and focus on getting the fundamentals right first. Once the core visual language was consistent, we could always come back and push the creativity further.
Result
Against all odds, it worked. Every offline asset was printed on time, every online deliverable went live as planned, and somehow we pulled it all off. I still remember the sense of relief when everything was finally done. More than anything, I was grateful that the team stayed supportive and kept moving forward, even during the most hectic moments.
Reflection
What this taught me about designing a visual identity?
This project taught me that creating a brand identity is a lot more than picking colors and designing logos. It's about building an entire visual language that helps people understand who the brand is and what it stands for. Along the way, I learned that even the smallest details like typography, spacing, color hierarchy, and consistency can have a huge impact on how a brand is perceived.
The project also taught me lessons beyond design. Between deadlines, revisions, and countless decisions, I learned the value of clear communication, teamwork, and leadership. Sometimes there simply wasn't enough time to debate every option, so staying adaptable, making informed decisions, and keeping the project moving forward became just as important as the design work itself.
Of course, no project is perfect. With a packed timeline, there wasn't as much room for exploration as I would have liked, and I can already see things I'd refine if given more time. Still, that's part of the fun. Every project leaves me with new lessons, and this one reminded me that great identities are built not only through creativity, but also through collaboration, compromise, and a lot of problem-solving.
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