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As Marketing Specialist, I am responsible for promoting Indiana Tech to current and future students, alumni and the general public through various media channels, including advertising, printed marketing materials, direct mail and online content. This includes managing the overall ‘brand identity’ of Indiana Tech through art and photo direction, copywriting, the use of layout, color palette, typography and other elements of visual communication.

I work with the Director of Marketing, another designer and the webmaster, as well as directly with various VPs, department heads and staff. My main focus is on designing materials for the College of Professional studies (CPS), our accelerated program for non-traditional students, as well as the Offices of Institutional Advancement (IA) & Alumni Relations.

For CPS, I develop and produce materials for the communications plan to target future students; the annual course catalog and bi-annual schedule books; brochures and info sheets for the various degree programs and special events; displays, promotional items and so on.

For IA, I have designed the annual President’s report; numerous invitations, posters and postcards for regular alumni events such as the wine and beer tastings. I also contribute articles and layouts for our quarterly Trends magazine, take photographs of campus activities and special events, and so on.

For the university website, I am currently focused on redesigning the site structure, information architecture and navigation design.

2. What problems do you as an Individual face with your job?

I strive for strategic design, which is driven by business objectives and metrics for success (whenever possible). Sometimes, the strategy for a project isn’t clear—or at least communicated—so it can take a bit of digging to determine what the outcomes and best deliverable needs to be. Other times, I’m not included in the initial discussion but called-in afterwards to produce something, when my being engaged earlier might lead to a different or better solution. Other projects come up with short notice, requiring a quick turnaround without the necessary planning and discussion.

A bigger challenge for most contemporary designers is that while more people have access to digital tools to do their own desktop publishing, they often don’t understand the complexities of visual communication, advertising and marketing strategy, professional printing and web design. They often think just in terms of what they themselves can do—with Word or PowerPoint and their laser printer, for example—rather than with the proper design software and the capabilities of a commercial printer. This requires being a ‘brand steward’ and sometimes having to manage projects created by others that might not be of the same quality as other university materials or mesh visually or conceptually with the ‘bigger picture’.

3. Why did you choose this field and would you choose it again?

In college, I attended art school and earned a BFA with a double major in painting and computer graphics. I sought work as a graphic designer, because I have always had a strong interest in the various elements of communication, both in print and on the screen. I worked for 4.5 years in advertising at a newspaper and 6.5 at a design and marketing agency before joining Indiana Tech, now for 1.5 years. Along the way, I have picked up knowledge, skills and experience in marketing campaigns, print and web production and public relations.

For me, design and marketing is about communication; connecting an organization with its audience and aiding in the exchange of information and services. Put simply, I help people find their voice and tell their stories using the best tools. Given these things, I would choose it again.

4. In what ways do you market our University?

The overall brand identity for CPS is meant to be clean, contemporary, focused and relevant. Photos show adult students in classroom and work environments, either actively working or facing the camera to show professionalism, confidence and optimism. The use of space, color palette, typography, ink and paper and other elements are all meant to convey simplicity and openness. The intention is to differentiate Indiana Tech from other universities and position CPS as practical, accessible and innovative.

• We have a communications plan ‘funnel’ for future students that includes weekly emails, phone calls and printed brochures which feature our academic choices, the convenience and flexibility of our program and address overcoming the challenges of earning a degree (cost, age, scheduling).
• For corporate contacts, we produce a brochure, posters with tear-off BRM cards and short-run fliers and postcards to promote info sessions and ‘lunch-and-learn’ meetings.
• For events such as education fairs, we have prominent standup floor displays and table runners.
• For current students, we produce degree-specific info sheets and brochures, annual course catalogs and bi-annual schedule books.
• For new degree programs, we produce an info sheet and brochure, posters, newspaper ads and inserts, magazine and web ads.
• For new locations, we produce info fliers, newspaper ads and inserts, magazine and web ads.
• For online advertising, we run banner ads on local websites and Google AdWords for key search phrases.
• For lead generation, we have an agency which collects and tracks online leads and custom phone numbers.
• For electronic media, we have an agency that handles creative production and media buying for TV and radio and some newspaper and magazine ads.

5. What means of marketing do you prefer? What works?

I prefer cross media campaigns, which combine multiple channels with a coordinated message, e.g. direct mail, newspaper inserts and online ads, all with a consistent look and shared message. Print has a large capacity to convey info, but competing for a person’s attention can be difficult. Differentiation is key to standing out; in their pile of mail or weekly newspaper inserts, on TV or the radio, signs on the road or bulletin board at work. Ads in newspapers, magazines and online are easy to ignore unless they’re placed where people are actively looking for such info already. Ultimately people have to be receptive to attending college and earning their degree, so part of the task is to provide the key info they’re looking for and overcome the reasons for not taking the next step. Everything I produce contains that action prompt to take the next step.

Lately I’ve been musing about the importance of typography in design. For me, the choice and relationship of font families is key to both the visual style of an individual project and the overall brand identity of the organization. Just like art and photo direction, color palette, arrangement & page layout, and ink & paper selection, typography is an essential element of visual communication. For me, typography is content.

After a year and a half of developing and tinkering, I think I’ve arrived at a style sheet for my work projects that’s expressive, flexible and focused. Above are examples and below a list of the main type families in my tool box:

1. Gotham – An excellent geometric sans serif based on the disappearing architectural lettering around New York City, it was the winner of our short list (which included Avenir, Helvetica Neue, Univers, Verlag and Whitney) to replace Franklin Gothic more than a year ago. To me, it conveys both old-world craftsmanship and new-world sophistication. I tend to use its many weights for display headlines and occasionally for body copy. BTW, it’s amusing to see Gotham get some notoriety as the signature font for Obama’s presidential campaign. I’ve also noticed it starting to show up in commercials and network news graphics.
2. Archer – I used to find little use for slab serifs, but this recent addition is a nice bridge between sans and serif. To me, its numerous weights range from lightness to solidity. I’ve started using it as an accent for headlines and subheads.
3. Garamond Premier Pro – Mostly for body copy and as a serif subhead alternative, this conveys to me tradition and readability above everything else. Another favorite is Caslon, but I haven’t had much occasion to use it.
4. Gotham Condensed – Very readable in smaller spaces, I use it for call-to-action statements and tabular data.
5. Bodoni MT (not pictured) – Reminds me of mid-century modernism, I use it as a more playful and less stuffy serif alternative to Garamond for short blocks of text.

You can view more examples of my recent work on Coroflot.