Social media is an ever-evolving beast, and with universities having to target a variety of audiences, that beast can be difficult to tame.
Clemson University is a recipient of the Gold Award for Design in Social Media in the 2022 UCDA Design Awards, and I had the opportunity to ask Executive Creative Director of University Relations, Jesse Godfrey, about his team’s big win and the process behind it.
THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME, JESSE. CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT HOW YOU BECAME EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR?
Jesse Godfrey: I graduated from Clemson University in 2011 with a degree in graphic communications. One of my undergraduate internships was with Leo Burnett in Chicago, and that experience really clarified my career direction. I knew that I wanted to work with creative people and after graduating, I was able to return to Leo Burnett as a producer. While I was there, I absorbed all I could about the structure and processes that surrounded the agency and was able to leverage that experience and my skillsets in design to come home to Clemson to an Art Director position with the University.
From there, I worked hard to produce creative work that served my clients’ needs, while continuing to push myself to learn new skills and extend my depth of knowledge in other media beyond print. I spent some time producing video, did some digital design, and began dabbling in social media content creation as well.
Now I lead a team of seven incredibly talented designers and lead all our creative teams in a unified effort to support the university’s top strategic efforts, maintain and protect the Clemson brand, and elevate how we are telling its story.
HOW DID IT FEEL WHEN YOU HEARD YOUR TEAM WON THIS AWARD?
Jesse: I was thrilled and very honored! This was a unique project, and it was a very long-range effort to get it implemented. It’s great to see all the effort and time spent overhauling our social content is getting recognized.
CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS? IT LOOKS LIKE YOU WERE REALLY STRATEGIC WITH HOW YOU PRESENTED INFORMATION FOR SPECIFIC AUDIENCES.
Jesse: This work really started as a side project. I knew that we wanted to make some updates to our content to make certain series feel more distinct and branded, but there is never really a good time to do that. It began with just an exploration to discover how much branding makes sense in the social media space. Content needs to feel real and authentic, but also elevated and polished at the same time. The next question was “How do we make content visually distinct and relevant to very different audiences?”
Our channels serve up content to prospective and current students in more of a student experience format, but other times we are communicating institutional statements or news stories. Sometimes it’s a very complex research story, and other times it's alumni content. The solution seemed to be a visual system that somehow parsed out these audiences and content types and created a distinct visual format for each.
Ultimately, though, much of the work was created without a brief or an ask from our social team. Instead, it was a solution to a challenge that had become clear over time as we worked together. The result was a series of conceptual pitches of the visual framework, followed by some listening sessions to make sure what we are designing fits the content strategy well. After that, we worked over the summer to prepare content and develop templates and workflows to sustain the refreshed work, and were ready to launch by Fall!
I think it can serve as a great example of how designers can be problem solvers. If you’re a seasoned designer, trust your gut — there is likely some idea or answer in your head somewhere to a question that hasn’t been asked yet. Don’t wait for the ask, solve it now and pitch it!
WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU FACE IN CREATING THIS SERIES?
Jesse: The main challenge was deciding whether to move ahead with some ideation and exploration before I knew if it would work or not. Luckily, we have a great team, and I was able to pitch the ideas to colleagues I trust and presented it in a collaborative way. With pitching to internal collaborators, it’s important to frame the work as “in progress” to create buy-in and, more importantly, to get input from other perspectives to make the work even better!
THE DESIGN IS VERY INTENTIONAL BETWEEN THE PHOTOS, THE TYPOGRAPHY, AND THE COLORS. HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO MAKE SURE ALL THE INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS TIED TOGETHER PERFECTLY, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU’RE DIFFERENTIATING AUDIENCES?
Jesse: It was challenging, but I really nerd out on that sort of thing! What was more important to me, though, was that ideas within the different content buckets feel like they tie together but remain distinct from other buckets. I wanted the more serious storytelling content to feel very editorial and not terribly colorful but wanted student-facing content to be bright, fun, and VERY orange.
ABOUT HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOUR TEAM TO CREATE THE GENERAL DESIGN ITERATIONS, KNOWING THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS ON-GOING?
Jesse: The exploration and concept phase happened over the course of a spring semester and the actual implementation phase (template building, final polished assets, etc.) happened over the course of the summer leading up to a Fall rollout. Summer tends to be a slower cadence for us on social, and much of the recurring series content, or “hub content” as we call it, pauses for the summer. Summer was the logical transition point for our team.
WHAT DOES YOUR TEAM DO TO STAY INSPIRED AND CREATIVELY ENERGIZED?
Jesse: Everyone is a little different but overall, we feed off one another. It’s so great where we’re able to all be together to just spend quality time and to share what we’re working on and what we’re seeing in other areas. We have a really great team of creative people at Clemson. Personally, I love looking to brands in other industries to see how they are innovating and what new things they are trying in the branding and marketing spaces and figure out how that can work for our institution.
FOR THOSE OF US WHO AREN’T SUPER SOCIAL MEDIA-SAVVY, WHAT ARE SOME GREAT ACCOUNTS TO LOOK TO FOR ENTERTAINMENT, BRANDING, AND STRATEGY?
Jesse: I’m a big fan of the New York Times and The Atlantic channels on Instagram. When it comes to storytelling, each of these set the bar really high. The photography and design of their content is always top-notch as well!
Clemson University is in upstate South Carolina and is a public university with 27,341 students.
Jesse Godfrey is the Executive Creative Director of University Relations at Clemson University.
Kali Daniel is a part-time senior graphic designer for the University of North Alabama Division of Advancement and the founder of Humble Onion Creative, LLC. When she’s not doom-scrolling Pinterest, Dribbble, or the UCDA Slack channels, you can find her curled up with a book of creative nonfiction or a horror movie. She, her partner, Sam, and their dog, Salazar, live in The Shoals, Alabama.
See all the winners at:
https://ucda.canto.com/v/2022DesignAwards
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