Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Title of entry: Transcript Magazine, Berkeley Law

About this entry: In 2020, Berkeley Law redesigned its biannual magazine, Transcript. The goal was two-fold: Align with UC Berkeley’s overall brand, and powerfully reflect the law school’s three core pillars of excellence, community, and public mission, which drive how the magazine’s content is chosen and presented.

The Fall 2021 issue, “Side by Side”, focused on returning to in-person instruction after students took classes on Zoom for over a year. Coordinating with our incoming student government co-presidents — one in Mexico, the other in Idaho — we arranged to document each preparing to meet the other for the first time in person after they arrived in Berkeley. We captured the emotional impact of those moments in a powerful photo essay, with a cover shot exuding their strength and resolve in rebuilding our in-person student community amid the pandemic.

The Spring 2023 issue, “The Highest Stakes,” described the massive impact our Death Penalty Clinic has on both clients and students. Our cover illustration invokes the humanity the clinic infuses into its demanding work on behalf of people facing capital punishment, and the feature spread blends the rigor of that work with the close bonds it creates. Another feature, on our junior professors, weaves a dynamic opening illustration throughout the spread, from the faculty photos to the articles themselves.

Overall, this redesign incorporates more photography, more artistic contributors, brighter colors, engaging infographics, and other design elements, breaking up text and giving each section a more distinct identity with individual color schemes and other subtle touches.