The University of Richmond partnered with the branding firm Ologie to develop the “Within Us” brand.
Through a series of national and regional print and online advertising, we fleshed out the brand with our own campus assets.
Double exposure style images were created by compositing two or more images, starting with high-quality, custom photographed portraits, shot by our in-house photographer. The imagery for each double exposure was chosen based on the focus areas for each of the subjects.
Using the double exposures, and clean, bold graphic imagery, a broad range of advertising was developed.
Series of shadowbox ads at Richmond International Airport
Several different versions of this animated creative ran on the Washington Post and the PostPlus ad-sharing network, and received above average user engagement.
This brand book gives a condensed overview of the University of Richmond brand, and breaks it into concise constituent parts. It is part handbook, and part celebration of the campus that we built the brand around. The goal was to make the brand clear, accessible, and engaging for the campus community.
The bold red cover uses the graphic web element as a wrap around, and anchoring device for typography.
The cover and one of three spreads highlighting our brand pillars. This spread showcases one of our principle photographic approaches, paired with a branded type treatment.
This spread introduces a strong graphic approach that serves to support more instructive content about the University’s editorial voice.
With the establishment of the “Within Us” brand, it’s been important to determine how the brand gets expressed in work created for campus partners.
For Advancement, an inaugural loyalty giving piece is treated in a clean, sophisticated way with lots of white space, allowing the brand graphic elements carry the piece, with a subtle deboss. The logo uses a stylized drawing of Boatwright tower, building upon the delicate linear web graphic from the original brand tool kit.
The Tucker-Boatwright mailer makes use of the secondary color palette, and again relies on graphic linear elements to convey a complex theme - in this case, deconstructing Orientalism in music, and expressing intersectionality. Our campus partner on this project felt strongly that we not literally represent that which they were working to deconstruct, so the use of sound visualization patterns, rendered in the same style as the web graphic, served as as strong and conceptual visual to anchor this yearlong series.
Mailer, logo, and annual sticker for donors
The flagship mailer/poster for this festival integrated our brand fonts, secondary color palette, and linear graphic elements to represent the festival’s themes of intersectionality and deconstruction
The University wanted celebrate 125 years of our shared identity as the Spiders, and a flexible visual campaign was developed with the intention of extending the celebration across many facets of university life during the 2018-19 academic year.
The system includes a modular logo, a suite of graphic elements, and a several photo treatments, to allow for a range expressions. The 125 identity has already been used by University Communications on campus pageantry, event promotions, branded give-aways, and digital engagement tools.
The 125 identity has been shared across campus, and has been adopted by campus partners and integrated into a variety of their work as well.
Banner-ups bring the Spider 125 celebration to a variety of alumni and student events. These banners make good use of the modular logo system and the range of graphic expressions.
125 campus banners were developed to integrate into a series of yearlong campus pageantry. We used photography from throughout the history of the university, from the 1910’s, to present day.
Pennants and lapel pins were amongst a variety of items that were created bearing the 125 brand.
Digital flyers play on monitors, extending this campaign quickly and flexibly across campus.
“Spider Proud” was developed as an identity for National Spider Day, 2018, with a mind towards building on the spirit created by the University’s successful “Spider Pride” website.
Knowing that a new university brand would be forthcoming, the visuals subtly alluded to some of the typographic style to come, while adding some retro appeal with the graphic textures.
Working collaboratively with colleagues across University Communications, we developed a variety of methods to engage our campus community, including a limited edition baseball shirt (delivered to special constituencies in a custom gift box), printed collateral, and digital engagement tools including a facebook profile frame. Our multimedia team developed an animated intro for a celebratory “Spider Proud” video based on the graphic identity from the printed pieces.
A branded email communication, a custom facebook frame, and a video all encouraged alumni participation, both on and off campus.
The award-winning University of Richmond Magazine offers myriad opportunities to visually tell the stories behind the people and places that alumni continue to connect to, years after they graduate.
A range of visual approaches across the feature-well allow us to communicate each story with the depth and specificity they deserve. From art-directed custom photo shoots, to archival images, to provided photography (sometimes professionally shot by our alums), we deploy the style of photography that will draw the reader into the story.
Custom illustration also plays a part in our features and departments. All illustration seen on this site was created by me, but hiring and art-directing freelance artists who ensure that we have a mix of appropriate styles is an important piece of that puzzle.
From conceptual graphic imagery, to traditional illustration, to built and photographed objects - covers for URM are always an opportunity to showcase the intersection of collaborative thinking and creation.
This story worked as a synthesis between stunning photography, - provided by the subject, Connor, from the journey chronicled in the story - and an illustrated map that plotted the location of each photo, and helped guide the reader through his route.
A collaboration with the web team resulted in an enhanced online experience.
Introductory spreads for several feature stories. These showcase historical photography, my illustrations, and custom photography by Stephen Voss.
The research and writing for this page were almost as fun as creating the artwork.
Richmond Law Magazine often calls for a combination of conceptual imagery, and clear data visualization to communicate multi-faceted ideas to the readership.
The work of the faculty at Richmond Law is often specific, and infographics must be accurate in how they convey research, but in the context of the magazine, they must also be intriguing and digestible. The challenge of producing work that sits in that venn-diagram overlap, and encourages the reader to dig in to the data, is one of the most rewarding parts of working on this publication.
Illustration and narrative infographic created for a story about boilerplate contracts, and the inherent absurdity of responding to their terms as though they were any other free-market transaction.
A story that called for both gritty news photography and clear and engaging infographics to communicate the gravity of the topic.
The Office of Admissions sends regular mail communications to thousands of prospective students over the course of the year. Ensuring that these mailings remain fun and engaging, while also sharing the best of the university in a concise package was a primary goal of these pieces.
The angled die-cuts on some of the pieces incorporate color-blocks that had been established as an iconic part of Admissions look and feel, while creating a reveal and elevating the tactile experience of the piece. Despite the custom cuts, all pieces were designed to still be practical and affordable to print and mail.
The suite of mailers also sync with other pieces of Admissions collateral that target more specific audiences, like accepted students at all stages of the admissions cycle.
A variety of logos for university campaigns, student development initiatives, and even UR’s first off-campus cafe.
A little motion can enhance the user experience, and tell a story quickly and effectively. These are a few more narrative animations created for the University of Richmond.
To accompany a university legend about finding eternal love in the gazebo.
To accompany a story about the serendipity of a class ring, lost, and then returned, 30 years later.
With my apologies to Vincent Van Gogh
A campus is diverse community, and creating cohesive visual systems that work for a particular group takes an understanding of their specific needs, and how they dovetail with the larger mission of the university.
Prior to the establishment of the “Within us” brand, various campaigns and identities were developed for campus partners to communicate about major speaker series, departmental initiatives, and campus events.
The collateral package for the 2016 Tucker-Boatwright Festival was designed around the theme of genre fiction as literary fiction. The mailer was designed as a comic book that opened up into poster, via a clever folding and cutting scheme. The illustrated scenes were also reworked into individual promotional materials for each event.
University Museums needed a way to make their year's work more tangible at a glance, so they worked with us to develop an engagement report that brought various stakeholders into their galleries, and shared data alongside more qualitative information and imagery.
The collateral package for the 2016 Tucker-Boatwright Festival, including mailer/poster for the whole festival series, and individual promotional flyers and bookmarks for each event.
The inaugural Museums Engagement Report showcased the variety of ways in which the campus and off-campus community avail themselves of the resources provided by University Museums.
These fundraising pieces for a variety of programs and initiatives were designed with the option of presenting them as a cohesive package, or individually, based on the interests of the potential donors they are shared with.
Custom profile photography of key figures in each program was mixed with existing imagery of campus, and architectural renderings to create a complete picture of what donors would be contributing to.
Spreads from the Wellness and Basketball case statements
