As an in-house designer for Indiana University, the question I get asked the most from young designers, “Do you ever feel limited by the IU brand?” My answer: yes, of course, all the freaking time! But the way I look at it, those limits are what have pushed me over the years.

 

When I first sat down with the Media School to develop a new marketing campaign, I knew this was going to be a project that required us to think outside the box. Working with their in-house designer, we first scrubbed the marketplace. Who are our students and what other schools are they interested in? How are those schools portraying themselves and how can we interrupt that space?

 

The concept was built on the inter-connectivity of classes and skillsets at the school. You can craft your education to exactly what you want it to be. If you want to focus on game design and social marketing, you can do it here. Scriptwriting while being a foreign correspondent, go for it. 

 

To show this connection, one of my favorite elements of the campaign was a custom-built typeface based on Benton Sans Black, one of IU’s brand fonts, to be used across the campaign materials. The full project included concepting for digital and print ads and the development of a visual system.