Elwing Gao

COOPER UNION SUMMER ARTS INTENSIVE 2025

2024–2025 / VISUAL IDENTITY, BRANDING

Design strategy for the 2025 campaign of CUSAI, an arts summer camp hosted by The Cooper Union for high schoolers in NYC who are looking to develop their practice with college-level arts education.

I created an identity that captures a playful summer energy through a high-contrast palette and bold display typography. By weaving a typeface with “paper-cut” inkwells into dynamic patterns, the identity references analog and experimental modes of art-making, while a reconstructed pinwheel logo introduces a modular icon system for each artistic discipline.

I worked on the following deliverables: brand system, poster mailer, postcards, and tote bag.
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Samuel ChunDESIGNERS: Elwing Gao, L.ily Nguyen
ANIMATIONS: Gen Ramirez

THE PROCESS

The primary challenge was a dual-audience strategy: creating a brand that felt "fun" and accessible to creative teens, while maintaining the academic prestige required to appeal to parents. My strategy was to develop “structured play” through an icon system that could be used like collage.

I spent a long time trying to get the icons right, but realized that it was the way I used the icons that brought the identity to life, from reinterpreting the original CUSAI pinwheel logo (which itself references the iconic Cooper Union box-kite) to the interwoven patterns.