Undergraduate Viewbook
// California College of the Arts
CCA’s Admissions team wanted to update the promotional brochure they distribute to all prospective student inquiries with a fresh new look, feel, and voice to match with their recent school-wide rebrand.
Role
As lead marketing and creative strategist, I worked closely with admissions stakeholders and the San Francisco-based design firm, Volume, Inc. to develop the strategy for the high-value print piece and oversee creative direction for the school.
Strategy
My content strategy and outline proposed a 28-page, full color catalog with 12 custom, off-size, screen-printed cardstock inserts. I wanted to highlight the strengths of the school, it's diversity, location, and just as importantly - the power of art to transform culture.
As copywriter, I immediately got to work interviewing over 20 CCA students across all the school’s disciplines to identify 4 diverse undergrads to profile throughout the book. Their profiles were quirky and personal, highlighting aspects of the student experience user research showed students cared about in a school and a student body. When it came to writing about the school, I eschewed the traditional higher education approach of fact spewing and self-aggrandizement in favor of a more subtle and aspirational motif, developing a bold new take that pushed the boundaries of how a school could engage with it’s prospective students.
Outcome
The finished piece represented a defining expression of the brand’s newly minted identity that conveyed the school’s values and offerings in a bold, poetic new way that resonated with it’s core audience. It also came in at a fraction of the budget of previous Viewbooks produced by the school. The result was a unique, artistic piece that stood out from the crowds at Admissions events, helping contribute to a 17% increase in applicants in just a single year.