In this journal post, I had the pleasure of catching up with Jenny Hoffman, Principal + Creative Director of Ashton Design. Jenny, along with Lead Designer Noni Devora and Strategist/Writer Kim Carlin, partnered closely with Towson University to develop strategy, messaging and branding for the RISE Campaign. The successful efforts of this talented team resulted in capturing a Gold Award in the Campaign Strategy category of the UCDA Design Awards competition. The team’s collective insights about their client-focused approach to working with TU, and the creative development process are highlighted below.
Could you tell our readers a bit about the path that brought you to work with Towson University?
Our business strategy focuses on building strong and long-term relationships with clients who share our vision of design as a strategic tool for organizations. We connected with TU through their chief marketing officer, someone who knew us and our work through past projects we’d done together.
There’s been a trend of universities seeking out national marketing agencies for projects of this scope—looking for wisdom from “experts.” But TU as an institution values creative collaboration and wanted a partner who would value their internal wisdom and work to develop a campaign strategy that would feel true to their values and culture. Their advancement leadership was seeking out a partner for the campaign branding project who would truly “get” TU.
So we were thrown into the mix because of the quality of our design work, and we were hired because our team understood TU and shared its vision for the campaign. It didn’t hurt that our strategy lead is a TU alum whose love for the university and knowledge of its strengths and potential impressed the review team.
We hope you were ecstatic to learn that TU’s RISE Campaign won a Gold in the Campaign Strategy Category. Outside of industry awards and accolades, how do you measure your work’s success?
We were very honored to receive this recognition for the TU Rise Campaign. It took a minute to sink in that we’d received the top award in this category, and we know that we faced amazing competition.
We measure the success of our work by how well it serves our client's needs and helps them achieve their goals. We accomplish this with a vision-led, research-backed, and results-driven design process.
Towson University RISE Campaign Identity and Collateral (Case Statement, Website, and Social Media Template)
Award: Gold Award
Category: Campaign Strategy
Competition: Print and Digital
What was your creative writing process which ultimately led to the name “The RISE Campaign”? Why did this campaign name work so well for Towson University?
We started by immersing ourselves in the university and spent a lot of time listening—meeting with advancement leadership, major gifts officers, the president and other university leaders, as well as talking to faculty, students, alumni, donors and friends of the university and reviewing the donor research conducted by their campaign consultants.
In every conversation, we were impressed by the drumbeat of ambition. Everyone in the TU community passionately believes that Towson University is on the rise. TU’s enrollment growth, campus expansion, work in the community, and investments in often first-generation students were clearly having an outsize impact on the health and economy of its community, region, and state. But the university’s impact and quality weren’t always reflected in perception–even among alumni. Throughout the region, TU is often outshined by its peer institutions in the state, including Johns Hopkins University and the state system’s flagship campus.
So part of the challenge the campaign team faced was to re-engage alumni who had attended the university when its profile, size, and reputation were different than today, educate them about how the university has evolved since their time, use the campaign to build pride in association with the university, and spark the growth of a culture of giving back within the TU community.
It was clear as we shared our discovery findings that the campaign needed to reflect the university’s ambition and vision AND convince alumni of the value of their association with TU and the need to rise to the challenge of helping the university achieve its ambitious goals.
Our process began with mirroring back what we had heard in our listening sessions, along with a core narrative that aligned with our findings. With approval of the core campaign narrative, which built on the university’s brand theme of momentum, we presented several campaign brand concepts. RISE just kept rising to the surface as the brand concept that best fit this university and this campaign. We loved that RISE combines a description of what TU has done throughout its history, a promise of where it is going, the opportunity that it offers its students, and an imperative for everyone who loves this institution to stand with it—through the campaign theme “Together we rise.”
When it comes to visual design and storytelling, what is your favorite element(s) of the identity that ties the branding together across all marketing channels?
The visual approach to the campaign echoed the core narrative of forward momentum and a university on the RISE. In keeping with our charge to align the campaign brand with the relatively new university branding, our design built on elements of the university brand and utilized the primary shape that forms the “Calvert Pattern” in Maryland’s state flag in a unique way into the logo and graphics.
We love the way the silhouetted form pulled from the Calvert Pattern captures TU’s forward momentum. We threaded this form through every aspect of the campaign’s visual palette–from photography to the die-cut in the printed case. This energetic form aligns nicely with the “momentum” theme of university branding and carried the idea of limitless potential–for TU and its students and alumni–embedded in the campaign narrative. This form became the visual symbol for ways TU supports and elevates students and alumni, reminding them of the university’s role in preparing them for their accomplishments.
As we articulated in the campaign narrative, “The RISE campaign is fueled by the closely held value that has shaped TU for more than 150 years—put students first,” we began with the clear intention of developing a people-centric campaign, literally integrating the RISE identity into the photography which became the focal point of the campaign identity. Our photography strategy emphasized how TU supports and lifts up its students by combining stunning portraits with a key component of the TU brand (the RISE shape vignetted from the Calvert Pattern).
We were so excited that it clicked! We love that the core message is visually conveyed in such a simple but impactful way in every element of the campaign brand and collateral.
This campaign strategy has many creative components—from print and environmental graphics to digital design. Are there project management tools you utilize to keep your team and the client on task? Are there any tips for our readers you could offer on managing complicated, multi-faceted projects?
The campaign development phase began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we moved all our communication lines online and immersed ourselves in the remote work environment early on. Thankfully, a lot of project management and communication tools are available out there and our weapons of choice—Basecamp and Slack, were up to the task.
Knowing that there are a number of moving parts in this campaign and different teams to connect with, we sought a portal that can house relevant project information and can easily be accessed by all. Basecamp was a great fit and helped us manage internal and external communications, handle all the project files, and track feedback and approvals from the TU team.
For internal communications, we used Slack—perfect for quick chats on design and copy edits as well as everyday tasks and check-ins.
Due to the unfortunate circumstances, we had to pivot and adjust the way we managed this project but our open lines of communication helped determine the most efficient ways for the team to collaborate.
In what ways has the TU community embraced the campaign creative?
One goal of the campaign visual brand/strategy was to align/integrate seamlessly with what was then a newly launched university brand. The campaign language of opportunity, momentum, and dynamic energy all build on the existing university narrative.
To be a truly successful campaign, TU's marketing, advancement, and events teams needed to be able to take what we created and run with it independently. We worked with them early on to identify those essential tools, ensure we had no holes in our concepts and that we understood how it would be used. This process focused on ensuring that the work we did would make the internal team’s job easier (not more challenging), and set the campaign up for success. It does not matter how fabulous the strategy and design are if it's impossible to implement.
Since we handed the project over to TU’s internal team, we’ve enjoyed seeing how they have used different campaign elements, and how they have adapted the brand to a wide range of outreach tools–from personalized videos to donors and alumni to social media. We are pleased to see that they are using the campaign microsite as envisioned, including continuing to populate the news section with a focus on telling the stories of donors–and of the students and faculty who benefit from their gifts, as well as how those gifts are fueling TU’s impact in the larger community.
What keeps you inspired and staying current with today’s design trends?
We've built a close relationship with our creative network (AIGA, SEGD, and now UCDA). We're always excited to learn from our peers’ experiences and accomplishments and look for opportunities to collaborate. But we believe our best design comes from being out in the world. We champion travel and life experience as essential to creativity. And with that, we strive to have a diverse and global team to bring their influences and references—expanding our design thinking overall.
Lastly, many of our staff are adjunct faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Teaching and being at the pulse of young design students sometimes helps more than any design blog out there.
Regardless of it all, it's still so easy to get stuck in your own bubble. Our firm was built on a foundation of collaboration and idea-sharing, which included meeting each day for lunch in the workroom/conference room where project idea boards were posted. Since we’ve moved to a virtual agency format, we prioritize our team’s weekly show-and-tell Happy Hours. Having the dedicated time each week to share something we're interested in or solicit feedback on a project we're in the middle of makes all the difference!
Think back to your first year as a professional in the creative industry. If you could give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
From Noni Devora, project lead designer: Design is a form of visual communication, and it's meant to be a dialog, so it is important to go beyond aesthetics. Knowing and understanding who you are talking to and what you are communicating should be at the heart of design.
From Jenny Hofman, creative director: Stop wasting so much time trying to make your designs "perfect" before getting feedback on the high-level concept/direction. Start with solving the problem (not with how it looks). Sketch, keep it loose, get feedback, THEN refine. It does not matter how great the design is... if it doesn't do the job. GOOD DESIGN IS SUBJECTIVE. GREAT DESIGN IS STRATEGIC!
From Kim Carlin, strategist/writer: Trust the process and embrace that feeling of having no idea where the project will end up when you begin it. There is no single right answer for any project. Don’t succumb to “imposter syndrome” and freeze up when you feel this way, remember that you are embarking on a journey with your client. Be open to listening and learning–that’s the best part of this job. Never be afraid to say, I don’t know, what do you think?
What is your favorite font?
Right now, Editorial New by Pangram Pangram Foundry—ask me tomorrow. It’ll be different. ;-)
Credits
Ashton Design/Design Firm
Jenny Romei Hoffman/Creative Director
Noni Devora/Lead Designer
Kim Carlin/Strategist/Writer
Towson University is located in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore, and is a public university with 20,856 students.
Wendy Sheaffer is the Senior Director of Creative Services at Elizabethtown College. She has more than 20 years of design experience as a creative and marketing communications professional in the higher education industry. Wendy’s primary role is to manage the visual image and brand of the College. She holds a BFA degree from Kutztown University and is currently taking grad classes, working towards earning her Master’s in Strategic Leadership at Etown. She lives in Lancaster County PA with her husband and two sons. She attended her first UCDA Design Conference in 2006, in Austin Texas, and has been a supporter of the organization ever since.
See all the winners at:
https://ucda.canto.com/v/2022DesignAwards
We want to see your best work! Enter at:
https://www.ucda.com/designawards
Categories: creativity, design, higher education, typography, branding, design, interview, web, design awards, conference, inspiration, print, collaboration, web, campaign, fundraising