YHack: Crafting the Identity for Yale’s Hackathon

Building a cohesive brand and digital experience for 400+ global hackers.

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Events/Community

Duration

3 months

l. Context

YHack is Yale’s annual hackathon. I was commissioned to create the 2026 brand identity around the theme of love, then design the website experience that developers would implement.

l. Context

YHack is Yale’s annual hackathon. I was commissioned to create the 2026 brand identity around the theme of love, then design the website experience that developers would implement.

II. Direction + Design System

I explored several visual directions before landing on a blue + red system. I made the shift from the earlier pink/purple palette to better reflect the YHack community and keep the brand bolder and more universal, while still incorporating Yale blue into the identity.

From there, I partnered with another designer to build the brand as a reusable system:

Visual language: palette, type hierarchy, graphic motifs
Illustration: custom “Dans” and supporting assets that could scale across pages
Web UI: a component-driven Figma system (hero sections, cards, buttons, layout rules)
Developer collaboration: annotated handoff + quick iterations to keep the built site aligned with design intent

III. Reflection

This project strengthened how I design for real constraints: not just making something beautiful, but making it buildable and consistent across a full system. The biggest learning was collaborating with developers, being explicit about what’s essential to preserve, what’s flexible, and how to simplify without losing the brand.

Next: extending the identity into merch (shirt design) and refining responsive details as the site evolves.