I am in a group formed for other Spaniards who also live in the United States. We usually hang out and organize events like birthdays or holidays. One of the people in the group suggested an exciting activity: a mobile photography contest. On a monthly basis, one of the participants would suggest a theme, and everybody would submit the photos and vote for their favorite ones. The winners of each month, will be featured in a calendar for the following year. The idea was enthusiastically accepted, and many people participated in the 2023 edition. We had rules, of course (no editing, for example, and to use a 16:9 ratio), but it was funny and easy to participate. We had lots of fun!
As the year 2023 was coming to an end, I talked with the organizer. He wanted to do a meet-up to gift the calendars to every participant, and we thought it would be great if we could also make some certificates to give to them, like in a prize ceremony. I wasn’t working on anything at that moment, so it was great to design and make something creative for my friends. In the beginning, we wanted to give funny prizes, but later, we dismissed the idea and tried to make them in a way that maximized the possibility of every person obtaining a certificate. We ended up with 25 certificates!
So, I started designing it in Adobe Illustrator. I searched for references, did several sketches, and designed a logo. For the logo design, I used a photograph I took of some roses and traced it in vectors. Then, I made a smartphone with its camera visible and added some line art as a decoration. When the organizer chose the sketches he preferred -we decided to keep the design simple-, I prepared the certificates in Illustrator, choosing a legible and appealing font and colors that popped up. After that, I set the names and the categories we thought were better (Gold, Silver, and Bronze, in Spanish, Oro, Plata, and Bronce). Also, I prepared everything for printing.
Ultimately, everybody loved the certificates, and we had a great time!
Beaconpancakes 