Cruizin’ 2 Surge

Social-first campaign design for gig workers, spanning short-form video, paid social, and digital creative

project

California Gig Workers Union Southern California

Scope

2020–2021

Role

Multidisciplinary Designer

My contributions

Audience research, campaign concepting, short-form video, social-first creative, and scalable visual systems across digital channels.

Problem

The client needed to activate and unify a dispersed gig-worker audience using digital-first creative. Existing advocacy communications struggled to perform in paid social and video environments: messaging was overly abstract, visuals lacked distinction in-feed, and content failed to translate complex labor issues into emotionally compelling, actionable stories. The core challenge was to design campaign creative that could capture attention quickly, resonate personally with drivers, and scale across performance channels.

Opportunity

This project presented an opportunity to reframe labor advocacy through the lens of performance marketing and brand storytelling. By grounding the work in ethnographic research and applying strong concept ideation, the campaign could treat gig workers as an audience segment with personal goals and motivations—not just a political constituency. A modular creative system spanning short-form video, character-led visuals, 3D assets, and digital mockups enabled platform-native execution across paid social, video, and web while maintaining a cohesive narrative and visual identity.

Outcome

I owned the creative process end-to-end, from research and strategy through design, execution, and presentation. Deliverables included short-form video, campaign visuals, character and 3D design, website and social mockups, and presentation-ready assets. The resulting campaign translated abstract labor goals into clear, motivating narratives designed for engagement, clarity, and shareability across digital channels. From a senior-designer perspective, the project demonstrates strategic thinking, strong concepting, and the ability to execute scalable, performance-aware creative in close collaboration with stakeholders and cross-functional partners.

Social

Website Mockup

Business Cards

Environmental Graphics

Storyboard

Merchandise

Reflection

What this project challenged me to rethink

This project pushed me to reconsider the role of designers in performance-driven, community-based systems. Rather than designing for gig workers, the work explored how creative systems can enable communities to participate, adapt, and scale their own outcomes. It reinforced the importance of grounding digital creative in real human behaviors—especially when designing for fragmented, hard-to-reach audiences—and translating those insights into clear, motivating narratives that perform across channels.

How this thinking would evolve in a real-world setting

If extended, I would focus on operationalizing these ideas into tangible tools and products rather than abstract frameworks. That includes evolving the campaign into a practical field guide for ride-hailing drivers, exploring how lightweight AI/ML-driven tools could support collective learning and decision-making, and testing viability as a digital product or service. From an agency perspective, this means moving from concept to iteration, validation, and measurable impact.

What I’d take forward into future work

This project sharpened my ability to translate research into scalable creative systems and reinforced my interest in designing work that sits at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and behavior change. I’d bring these learnings into future campaigns by focusing earlier on performance feedback loops, clearer success metrics, and faster iteration—ensuring creative ambition is always paired with execution, clarity, and results.