Hobby horse 2025
For this project, I designed graphics for Cal Poly’s second annual hobby horse event, a silly and fun event put on by ASI. As part of the ASI graphic design team, I was assigned to work on posters, shirts, stickers, and social media posts. I was given the event details: date, time, and title, along with a requirement to use Cal Poly’s colors, and from there, I had a lot of creative freedom to make it stand out.
My Process
From the start, I knew I wanted to incorporate illustration into this project. I began with basic sketches of a hobby horse but initially made it too realistic. Since I wanted a more playful, cartoonish look, I simplified the horse and its facial details.
First round
Odering t-shirts
Next, I created a rider and drafted a rough layout for the poster. While I was fairly happy with the illustration, the rider needed adjustments, and the overall layout required better flow.
Sketching things out
I refined the rider to be more diverse and student-like for relatability, then positioned it above the text to function as a logo that could be used for stickers, posts, and shirts. I also adjusted the poster layout to emphasize key details like "2nd Annual," "Spectators Welcome," and the event date.
final round
The final step was sourcing t-shirt vendors. After comparing quotes and emailing back and forth with several companies, we chose Left Coast, as they fit the event team’s budget and had the desired shirt color.
