UNL Admissions Magazine

During my time as Senior Designer at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Office of Admissions, recruiting undergraduate students was still mostly done through the mail. We made hundreds of different pieces every year, but the capstone was always what we called the Admissions Magazines. Some years we did two issues, some years we did four. They were always very time consuming, but also very worth it.

This is issue #2 from 2015. This was my last year in charge of the magazines and also by far my favorite. In 2013, we had shifted the focus away from being promotional in a straightforward way, and more towards telling stories that students can relate to. They are meant to hit on the experience of college and the emotions of choosing your future, and focus less on the more informative aspects such as requirements and deadlines (we had other pieces that address those questions). We did a full dedicated photo shoot for each spread, and I made hand-lettering for every spread as well. This is the year that this concept hit its peak form. We printed these with a soft-touch coating for a premium feel.

This is magazine #1 from 2015.

A few additional spreads from the last two years of the magazine

Magazine #1 from 2013, when we first switched to the experiece-based concept but hadn't focused in on individual student stories.

Magazine #2 from 2013. We tried to focus on photography that felt more like lifestyle imagery and less like typical university staged shots.

Details from Magazine #2, 2013. As senior designer, I got to put together a typography system that perfectly captured the balance between higher-ed prestige and the dynamic energy of the late millennial generation.

Magazine #2 from 2013

These are a few spreads from the middle few years of my helming of the magazines, where we took more of an advertising-based approach. Each concept that we wanted to communicate was treated as a separate piece, and flipping through each issue became an engaging experience with a new feel on every page.

These are a few spreads from my first couple of years helming the magazine, which was actually given to me before I became the senior designer. It was my first year out of college, and I was overwhelmed with four full-length magazines suddenly sitting on my plate. It was definitely a learning experience, but I'm proud of the final product, and we heard from a lot of prospective students that they loved the new look.

A few of my favorite features from the first few years of the magazine were the individual college ads on the inside covers, the 'What it's Like' spread featuring student-submitted photography, and the interviews we did with our cover models.

In all, I helmed the magazine for 8 years. You can see the evolution of the design here on the covers. I did all of the design and art direction, I handled all of the lettering, and even directed a large number of the photo shoots. I'm proud to say that we always met (and often crushed) our enrollment goals during these years.

In addition to the magazines, we also did Transfer Guides, International Guides, Housing Guides, Admissions Guides, Multicultural Guides, and Annual Reports. Every piece multiple pages, and updated every year. Every piece designed by me. And that's to say nothing of the countless postcards, posters, and smaller brochures. It was an insanely fast-paced time, but such a valuable experience - both in working hard and in how to art direct entire large campaigns as one coherent unit.

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