Fall 2026 Countdown Series
★ Overview: My first assignment as the social media manager was to create a series of three countdown posts for the LAITS Instagram to get students excited about the upcoming fall semester
★ Brainstorming: I started out by sketching a few ideas for the post. I wanted the post to appeal to a modern UT student, and tried to lean into online trends (such as a flat layout of personal belongings), and included fun decor and imagery in the backgrounds of the post ideas to increase appeal and engagement to young adults.
I also wanted to keep the idea of Bevo getting ready for school as a common theme throughout the images (the same as last year’s fall countdown posts),
The first idea is a bulletin board set in Bevo’s room, including a calendar, checklist, sticky notes, photo strip, and pins.
The second is a computer displaying pop up reminders, google calendar, and maybe a back to school playlist. This is a fun perspective because Bevo is behind the laptop.
I had the idea to do a flat layout of back to school items for the next post as Bevo is packing up to return to UT. This is also a common method to display packing in an aesthetic way online.
The last idea follows the original move-in theme, but from a different angle. I wanted to include the “countdown” title on a street sign, and incorporate campus nature (turtles, butterfly, trees, etc).
★ 1st Post: After my sketches were reviewed, I got the green light to begin working on the first social media post. Using my sketch as a reference, I created the first draft below. I also color dropped from the previous year’s posts to keep a consistent color scheme:
Iteration: I then got feedback to make some small changes to the background (making the background a solid color to reduce busyness and enhancing readability of the “Texas” flag). I also changed the main popup text to “Fall ’26″instead of “1 month until classes begin” to maintain text consistency throughout all posts
The main change I made after design review was removing Bevo’s hands. I realized after discussing with admin that it was not apparent that the human hands in the post would be Bevo’s. I originally designed human hands to emulate a humanized Bevo in a different post, but this interpretation became lost when I displayed just Bevo’s hand in the countdown post. I decided to just omit the hands entirely for clarity.
Here is the final first countdown post:
★ 2nd Post: Similarly to the first post, I referenced my original sketch to create the first draft of the next post. I wanted to include fun references to student life, like the Bevo student ID, photo strip, and cowboy boots:
Iteration: I received feedback to make the background more apparent as a bed, to add the Summer Marketing sticker to the water bottle, and to change the contrast of the water bottle. For the bed, I tried to make the blankets and bed frame more recognizable while still keeping the background of the post simplistic, allowing the items on the bed to pop.
Here is the final second countdown post:
★ 3rd Post: Finally, I created a post inspired by fun campus landmarks to welcome students on their journey returning to or discovering campus! Here was my first draft:
Iterations: The main feedback I received had to do with altering the car to be less “menacing” and UT themed. The main edits I made to address this were:
- Rounding out the blocky shapes on the car
- Adjusting the headlight shape to be less slanted, and a little more rounded. The headlights often read like eyes, so we wanted to make sure we were sending a positive message with this graphic.
- Opening Bevo’s eyes (so he is not driving blindly)
- Adding a license plate with a UT slogan!
Here is the final version with the edits made:
★ Final Countdown Post Series:
