TartanHacks 2025—a playful, nautical identity for Pittsburgh's largest hackathon.
Timeline
3 months
Role
Signage, Motion, Print, Web/Mobile Design
For
TartanHacks, presented by ScottyLabs CMU
Team
Stacy Chen, Joanna Ni, Jean Chen, Arunima Das, Emma Deng, Emma Gelman, Michele Hratko, Swetha Joseph, Chori Jun, Emily Lau, Elin Zhou
CHANGING TIDES
A hackathon designed for adventure.
For TartanHacks (Pittsburgh’s largest annual hackathon) hosted by CMU organization Scottylabs, as Director of Design, I led team of designers in creating the branding and brand application for 2025’s theme: Changing Tides. This was carried out across merchandise, banners, event signage, website design, social media, stationery, and more.
Symbols for each role.
We intentionally assigned icons to different roles in the hackathon based on the nautical symbolism—the anchor for the organizers, as they were the foundation of the operation; the compass for the hackers, as they were the adventurers finding their way with their crew, and the wheel for judges, as their expertise would captain the operation and steer hackers to success.
MAPS AND WATER FORMS WITH AN EDGE.
The identity was modeled after maps and organic water shapes—but were treated with the sharpness and typography of a modern tech aesthetic.
WHIMSY AND MODERNITY
Basteleur was selected as our hero typeface given its playful yet vaguely fantastical, pirate map-esque tone. This was paired with highly modern SF Pro to maintain the tech and AI-centered focus of TartanHacks.
