Project - On Campus Magazine

On Campus Magazine

The first project that I worked on for the University of Illinois was the 2018-2019 issue of On Campus, a catch-all guidebook and magazine that is distributed all over campus to people coming in for campus tours, visit days, or job interviews.

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For the 2018 issue, I was asked lay out the publication. I focused on streamlining the layout, setting up reusable text styles, and creating page templates to optimize workflow. I used the first issue as an opportunity to learn about the publication so the next year I could build on it to create a stronger, more useful piece.

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Research

Before starting work on the 2019-2020 issue, my team sent out a survey to campus offices who had ordered magazines to distribute, and to students who had attended a visit day or tour where the magazine had been distributed. From this survey, we gained some valuable insights:

The magazine's primary readership was prospective students, and a large portion of these students had never actually visited campus (guides were handed out at off-campus college fairs for high school students).
The magazine's secondary audience was prospective faculty members and researchers who came to campus for interviews.
The most important feature according to those distributing the magazine was the campus map.
Those receiving the magazine found the map hard to read.
The most important feature according to those receiving the magazine was the photography.
Groups around campus found it a point of pride to be featured in the editorial content in the guide.
Students receiving the guide did not read the editorial content.

Improving Content Based on Findings

For the 2019-2020 publication, I wanted to focus on creating something that conveyed the energy of campus and highlighted how much was actually going on. I wanted to position On Campus as a critical first impression for individuals who had never visited campus or who had only seen a small portion of it while here. To achieve this, some changes needed to be made to the contents and format of the publication:

We cut the editorial content in the guide. In place of the long-format stories, we created an overview with bite-sized stats and facts for every college within the university.
I took advantage of the great photographers we had available, asking schools and units to send us the best pictures they took over the last year so that we could create a slice-of-life photo feature that could inform readers who were unable to visit themselves.
The map was very complex and the size of the publication meant that the map its self was illegible and the key was almost impossible to read. I took it in a more artistic direction, focusing on a few key campus landmarks and their location in relation to each other. This created a map that did a better job of highlighting what makes our campus unique.
There were dozens of restaurants within a five-minute walk of our main quad, but only three were listed in the campus guide. The university is not allowed to do anything that could be seen as favoring one business over another. The campus guide only listed the dining options that were physically located on university property and it was the same case with the hotel and entertainment listings. This left a bad impression of the number of dining, lodging, and entertainment options in and around campus. I worked to reshape the content to better reflect a vibrant downtown with plenty of businesses and events to take advantage of. This meant cutting a lot of the more specific content (like the listings for Wendy's and Sbarro), keeping the listings for things that truly made our campus stand out, and adding in some general statistics about how many options for things like dining and entertainment were available on and around campus.

I came up with two concepts that took the visuals of the guide in a more energetic direction that would grab the attention of perspective students. The final look of the publication ended up combining the line art and colors of the first mood board with the use of pattern and graphic photo treatments of the second.

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My Role

Designed and laid out the entire publication (minus ads)
Prepared publication for press
2019 issue only: reworked the contents and layout of the publication so that it better fit the audience's needs

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