Each year, UNC Creative works with the Annual Fund to create a custom mail piece for donors. The parts for this Bell Ringers’ mailing include a car decal, card, and envelope. For the 2011 mailing, we changed the card from a standard 2-sided piece to a custom di-cut of the Bell Tower. With the Bell Tower being the Bell Ringers’ defining element, it helped the piece stand out in a unique way.
The Carolina Communicator is the annual alumni magazine sent out by the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, containing school updates, news, stories, and donor information. UNC Creative did the initial design of the magazine (it was formerly in tabloid newsletter format) and we continue to design each annual issue.
FYI Carolina is an e-newsletter that is sent to alumni, parents, and friends of the University that shares information about people, events, and issues at Carolina. We design and develop this HTML e-mail – sent every month or two – as well as a separate print version of FYI that is sent out from the Chancellor twice annually.
The cover image is an important part of any publication, and was a big focus for the spring 2011 issue of Carolina Public Health magazine. With a theme of health prevention, we worked closely with the client to find something that would captivate the viewer while showing progress and movement. Carolina Public Health is a biannual magazine produced through our collaboration with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and distributed to alumni, students, donors and friends.
The Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc. works with UNC Creative on the design of their invitation packages. For this Asheville Alunmi & Friends event, we used a playful look that is still heavily based in the Carolina style. The multiple cards and envelope of the package allowed for the design elements to play nicely among the pieces.
The School of Government recently redesigned their Coates Connection newsletter and worked with UNC Creative through the process. Changing the size, format and style of the newsletter, while still keeping some aspects from the previous newsletter in tact, was the biggest challenge. UNC Creative listened carefully to the input and direction in order to find the perfect balance of freshness and familiarity, bringing positive reviews all around.
Marked by a new technological shift in mass communication, 2010 was a transitional year for the UNC J-school. It sought a new look for its annual report that would be fitting to the increasingly interactive field of journalism. The goal was therefore to use features of digital interactivity in a printed piece to more effectively communicate various levels of information. Style-wise, the school sought to achieve its goals through a bright color palette that plays off of Carolina blue. The client also wanted to solve the problem of the traditional order of the five foundational journalism questions (starting with “Who”), and the level of reader interest in the content of each of those sections.
Using this extended color palette to build a visual language to use as texture, our final design resonated with both the digital and the human emphasis for the school. We created an interactive publication with five distinct section covers, providing the reader with multiple entry points into the content. This solved the issue of readers starting with a list of names in the “Who” section of years past. While each section had its own entry point, the system of identifying content in each section kept the reader from feeling lost or overwhelmed. This publication was received very positively by both in-house staff and readers external to the university.
Custom Application
Every winter, the Chancellor reaches out with a holiday card to University alumni and friends. In 2009, UNC Creative was tasked with coming up with an alternative that was both more engaging and less expensive. Our solution was to build a custom web application allowing users to create their own holiday card and send it to others.
For the 2010 version, we created a handmade, torn paper motif. This added both a personal and tactile impression to the cards despite being entirely digital. The site and artwork have received rave reviews both on campus and off.
UNC Creative developed the overall look and feel for the UNC Institute for the Environment that is carried through in this brochure series. Each brochure was designed for a different unit affiliated with the Institute.
Once we had a clear idea of the visual style that the group wanted, we looked at similar source materials to filter down to what the intended audience would respond to positively. Through rounds of refinement, we’ve developed the visual voice, and the online presence, to reach and engage with a broader audience. We’ve also developed this site on the WordPress platform to give the Paideia center the controls they will need to update and add content in the future.