A student-to-student marketplace for UMBC. Brand identity, mascot, landing page and launch socials, then a pitch deck and a second run of posts, autumn 2025 to summer 2026.
A marketplace where UMBC students buy, sell and book from each other, and a founder who needed it to look like something students would trust.
Jada Iwuoha had pitched the idea as Collegiate Commerce at UMBC’s CBIC competition. When Carson called her in September 2025 she had a sitemap, seventy-five survey responses and a logo she described as doing what it needed to do for the competition, but not what she wanted students to see. The plan agreed on that call was to build the brand and a social presence first, so an audience would be waiting when the platform launched. A developer built the platform itself; Gibbon’s job was everything a student would see before signing up.
A golden retriever, drawn loose enough to feel friendly and simple enough to hold up as a profile picture.
UMBC’s mascot is a retriever, so the mark carries the campus without a crest.
A dog is a youthful, accessible symbol for an audience that lives on Instagram.
It plays on the pun of users retrieving their items.
Bright and youthful in the primaries, steadier in the secondaries.
Rich purple and golden yellow carry the energy; lavender, cream and an off-white stock steady it. Poppins for headings, and Baskerville in italic wherever the brand speaks in a voice.
A 3D retriever who talks in signs.
Carson pushed for a character on top of the logo, and for a name more memorable than Buddy. Jada chose Scout: gender neutral, and about finding new business and making student talent visible. One rule came out of Professor Fulmer’s feedback: Scout talks through the signs he holds.
From the student interviews and Jada’s survey, two archetypes kept showing up. Every page and post since speaks to one of them.
Student entrepreneur
“I’m tired of posting on random Discords. I need one place where everyone knows to find me.”
Runs a 3D-printing side hustle out of Instagram DMs and Discord, where posts get buried and expire. Wants the credibility of a featured spot on a university-backed platform.
Convenience-seeking resident
“I’d love to support student businesses, but I need to see their work first to trust them.”
On campus without a car, finding services by word of mouth and paying Uber fares to go off campus. Trusts portfolios and reviews, and fears booking the wrong person for type 4 hair.
Built in Framer to explain the platform quickly and collect a waitlist while the product was still being built.
One job before launch: establish trust and get a name on the waitlist. The page leads with the offer, previews product and service categories so buyers and sellers both see themselves, and shows how it works with Scout. It launched at thecampusconnect.co and was handed to Jada’s own Framer account in January 2026.
Ten content slides in Figma, built on paper, for grants and competitions that give a week’s notice.
Jada was applying to grants and competitions on six days’ notice with a Canva deck. Carson’s April review argued for a Why Now slide, real student quotes to prove the problem, and a timeline of competitions and awards. The Problem slide carries three quotes from Carson’s own interviews; the Competition slide was the part Jada liked most.
Nineteen posts across two runs, launch and summer, every one of them pushing a single action.
Carson ran the account from launch: eleven posts on a four-week calendar for December 2025, then eight more through summer 2026, plus flyers for the ProveIt vote and the bookstore residency. Scout, Jada’s founder story in her own words, student features, a grants roundup, a meet-the-team carousel and a campus business spotlight.
“As a first-time founder and full-time student with a busy schedule, the professionalism, creativity, speed, communication, and flexibility of Gibbon Studio were exactly what I needed. From executing my vision to offering thoughtful suggestions, working with Carson was an amazing experience. He really saw the value in what I was trying to create and helped bring The Campus Connect brand to life in a way that surpassed my expectations.”Jada Iwuoha, Founder, The Campus Connect