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The Takeover

Category: Branding, Graphic Design, Art Direction

For: Humber College

Challenge: Pick a Brand that Appeals to You and Redesign the Brand's Instagram Page.

I find history, facts and statistics fascinating. I also find high-quality photos fascinating. Then I find Discovering of hidden truths fascinating.

Brand: National Geographic

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“The National Geographic Society uses the power of Science, Exploration, Education and Storytelling to Illuminate and Protect the Wonder of our World.”

This line engraved on their home page summarizes well the brand’s core reason of existence, which consists of gathering facts through continuous exploration, innovation and be used to educate and move further in order to enlighten and preserve the world. Using technology for the better of all kind living on Earth, to improve exploration, to improve way to educate and to improve way to preserve the world.

Main Page of National Geographic's Instagram Channel, viewed from Computer

National Geographic Instagram Channel Desktop Version

New Page of National Geographic's Instagram Channel, viewed from Computer

National Geographic Instagram Channel Desktop Version After Takeover

The Takeover: COVID19

I decided to Re-Design, with a Temporary Take-Over of the channel's content the National Geographic will upload. The theme was COVID19, a virus outbreak turned into a pandemic. This is a crucial topic that everyone must be informed about for their safety. National Geographic is a perfect brand that is able to achieve this successfully. This strategy will directly follow their USP, using the educational facts they gathered by technology will be used to provide more education for Target Audience and alert them in order to preserve the world and make it a better place.

New Logo on National Geographic's Instagram Channel

National Geographic Logo Transformation
  • Inspiration of this takeover branched off from the fact that COVID19 is a disease difficult to notice and can be easily be easily mistaken for Regular Flu.

  • It is time for us to notice and be able to differentiate between “True Facts” from the “False Facts”

  • COVID19 virus colour is Yellow under electron microscope, I used the same colour to “cover-up” and hide National Geographic’s Original Logo of Rectangle to depict the “Take-Over” during this campaign.

  • I also changed the Profile name National Geographic and put them backwards and the established sign of Jan.11.2020 which was the date of 1st reported death from the virus, this was done to show the take-over started from that specific day.

National Geographic Instagram Posts after The Takeover
  • The first post after the take-over explains the simulation: Each post will contain true facts or false facts. If the follower thinks the post is true, they have to click the “like” button and if they think the post is false they must comment with the true answer.

  • The simulation will encourage the deterring of the mindless click of “like” of the content which people do quite a lot (they will think twice before).

  • It will spread facts and knowledge about COVID19 quickly through the platform through constant sharing.

  • It will bring the Audience to research the facts themselves before coming to an answer.

  • All of these aspects of the simulation will hold interest in the Target Market

  • They hold an interest in learning, being aware of facts, taking action on a social cause.

  • It also coincides with “knowledge is power” and educational theme of National Geographic, because if you know the facts you are reducing the chance of getting infected by the virus.

  • Explaining Briefly about each post, going chronologically, the first post with the Korean flag will be explained next slide, 2nd post is False with the wrong name of the virus, 3rd is True washing hands helps prevention, 4th is True wearing mask helps against the infection, 5th is False taking off the mask or not wearing them doesn’t help fight the disease, 6th is False being in crowded place doesn’t help fight the disease, 7th is False, Italy is not the best place for a vacation at the moment as they are in lockdown, 8th is True, alcohol IS one of the risk factors that increases the chance of getting COVID19.

National Geographic Instagram Post Example After The Takeover
  • In this example, the post is showing a photo of a location in South Korea with caption (that you can’t see, as they are above the comments) that says the virus originated from South Korea.

  • This fact is false, even though COVID19 is prominent in the country, it wasn’t originated from the country and came from a city in China called Wuhan.

  • The followers are following the simulation well as they are commenting on the correct answers, meanwhile, the number of likes represents those that don’t know about the simulation, or doesn’t know the correct answer.

© 2025 Daniel Min

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