Best of CASE District III Award
 

Institution: Duke University

Title of entry: Big Money Cover

About this entry: How do you illustrate something as ponderous as an endowment? Let's just start by saying you don't take a photo of someone holding a pile of money. That would be... crass. But an endowment is money -- as invested on behalf of a school -- so our art director Lacey Chylak came up with an arresting idea. by taking an image of currency with its notable cross-hatching, and running it full bleed -- with the subject's eye in the masthead (how cheeky!) -- as our cover. It's MONEY, but a more creative rendering of that. The illustration is highly visual, fun, and with the cinematic headline "Show Me the Money" -- sets the tone for the cover story, which is a very readable and fun take on Duke's investing. Yes, we went there! With a lot of administrative support for opening a window on something that most school are loathe to discuss. The reaction was AMAZING! People wrote us to say they finally understood how an endowment worked and they applauded Duke for being willing to talk about it. This cover is one of my favorite illustrations ever. It's bold and simple -- the currency aspect of it is so recognizable -- and says all we wanted to say.