Alumni Weekend invites Drexel Alumni to gatherings on and off campus. This was my first large project after joining the team. Previous work lacked cohesion because there was no orchestration or planning and the team was apprehensive about treating signature events as event branding problems.
I focused on creating a consistent visual system. I presented two concepts and created key art based on the selected concept. I then art-directed my designers to produce the applications. As a result, we increased registration by 12% compared to the previous year, and the team was primed to explore collaborative creative explorations.
- Role: Creative director, designer
- Client: Drexel University Alumni Relations
- Employer: Drexel University Institutional Advancement
- Engagement: Concept ideation, event branding, key art; creative direction for print collateral and digital assets
- Impact:
- Registration increased by 12% over the previous year
- Alumni engaged with the photography; they emailed us when they recognized themselves and reproduced their group photos during the weekend
- Our partners and the team welcomed the new approach and were interested in additional changes
Process
I began by talking with my peers and partners and quickly discovered their apprehension for change. I also audited the work produced in the previous years to learn what was my jumping-off point. The work was inconsistent, there was no concerted effort to brand the event, and pieces looked like they were designed independently from each other; this was confirmed by my peers .
While my ultimate goal was to build a cohesive and collaborative approach, this was too lofty to achieve at once. I focused on showing what we could achieve with established systems and processes, and by treating signature events as an event branding problem. I wanted to gain trust before introducing bigger changes. I also needed to learn more about the team and our operations to make more informed decisions.
I first created moodboards to synthesize the visual direction, then created some sketches and compositions. Once these were refined, and with feedback from the team, I presented two options to our partners.
Once our partners selected an option, we began with applications. We didn't have a marketing plan to follow, and requests came as needs arose; I coordinated an in-house designer, a design intern, and a freelancer who were able to tackle the work with minimal direction because they had all the references from the initial exploration.
