Best of CASE District VIII Award
 

Institution: University of Portland

Title of entry: Admissions Illustrations 2023

About this entry: Five years have passed since we rebranded our suite of Admissions marketing. During that time, which included a global pandemic and social upheaval related to racial injustice, the attitudes of students and their parents greatly evolved. We knew we needed to refresh our branding to better serve our target audience.

Illustration is one of the key elements in this rebrand.

Research shows that Gen Z students are realists who demand authenticity and relevancy and are attuned to and dismissive of jargon. In addition, parents navigating a shaky economy want to know the ROI of a college education. To address these new consumer attitudes, we completely rebranded our Admissions marketing materials with a “Keep It Real” approach that abandoned our curated and aspirational "Wonder" branding of the past.

Instead of grand, oversized brochures, we designed them in smaller, more accessible, and practical formats. We added tactile elements to reinforce a sense of experiential realness, and hand-drawn lettering and illustrations to add a human touch. We included more content than before, we made the size smaller, but we packed in more outcome stories, metrics, and statistics than before. Giving our audience the facts to support a value of a UP education.

The spot illustrations, hand lettering, and embellishments make our pieces more engaging, playful, and inviting. They also served to emphasis some of the important ROI and callouts, while provided wayfinding throughout complex communications. These illustrations were used in brochures, collateral pieces, eblasts, social and other digital templates.