#CC21ofakind

Visuals feature the main Columbia University "heroine" – Alma. This character represents renowned Columbia symbol – the statue of Alma Mater on the steps of Low Library in the heart of Columbia University Morningside Campus in New York City. Alma appears as a main cheerleader in the Countdown to Columbia campaign too – these two experiences are the bookends of the student life as Columbians. Alma meets the new students as well as bids farewell to the graduating ones.

Challenges

Developing graphic assets for an information campaign targeted at multiple audience bodies is particularly challenging:

• visuals have to be general enough to appeal to the majority of people;

• graphics need to adhere to the Columbia University mother brand, but look different from the baseline, formal branding to be it's own new and exciting identity;

• visuals need to be ADA compliant and considerable of diversity and inclusion policies;

• visuals need to be quick and easy to use for the non-creative staff working on the messaging.

Solutions

A "mix-and-match" approach: a suite of illustrations, badges and icons to accompany all typical types of messages used in the information campaign. All elements can work as stand-alone pieces as well as in combination with each other. Theme is flexible and scalable: same design elements are applied to the web pages, emails and social media posts. Newsletter headers and icons are uploaded to the Marketing Cloud prior to the beginning of the campaign, so they are available to use for the email marketing specialists; the rest of the assets shared as .png files with transparent backgrounds with the team and partners supporting the campaign.