UW–Madison’s 175th Anniversary
July 2023 marked the start of a year-long celebration of 175 years of UW–Madison. University Marketing contracted Sarah to work alongside their in-house team to execute this statewide omni-channel campaign. We joined forces with WFAA’s marketing team to tackle a creative project worthy of the historic institution. Specifically, Sarah’s role in this project includes: art direction, creative execution of deliverables, and UI/UX recommendations across digital, print, environmental, experiential, and event support.
“You’re a really impressive thinker, and I can see the ways you’re a huge asset to our work (and would be to any organization’s work).”
Concept
Once initial ideation and designs were presented, campus leadership decided to move forward with a concept rooted in Pushing Beyond Boundaries to celebrate historic breakthroughs and set a course to break new ground for the next generation. The copywriting team developed the singular themeline, “Where an Idea Can Change the World,” as well as a plethora of extendable headlines for the design team to work with in different planned projects that will extend into mid-2024.
The working team created a comprehensive guide to brand expression for UW–Madison’s 175th anniversary campaign. The audience for this document was designers, writers, and other creatives working on the campaign. Included in the guide are 1) helpful ways to think about expressing the brand, 2) how the concept and campaign tie to the overall UW brand, 3) things to keep in mind as they flex the brand expression, 4) resources to use in content creation, and 5) example executions for clarity and inspiration. These guard rails and best practices ensure cohesive execution of materials across campus and educational units.
Campaign Execution
After the marketing and media plans were approved, each of the four designers on the team were assigned a category and extendable headline to translate the concept around actual deliverables. Sarah created the print, digital, and social artwork for the headline: From Academic Powerhouse to Powering the State. She also created generic banners and signage that will appear across campus for the entire year of celebration, images for articles posted on social media, and swag giveaway items.
Anniversary Launch Day Celebration
For the official campaign kickoff, Sarah worked with the event planning team to create assets for the public celebration on the Terrace as well as visual materials to support the chancellor’s formal program. Creative executions included: digital screens, email headers, newspaper ads, signs, social graphics for paid and organic channels, experiential images, website images, directional signage, email invitations, presentations for the stage, and branded swag. All stakeholders were excited to see how the 175 concept was translated to event materials and the celebration ended with a bang—fireworks of course!
Community Open House
One of the last campus-wide events to bookend the year-long celebration was the 175th Anniversary Community Open House. The large scale of this event required the team to create a full conceptual pitch and presentation to leadership stakeholders which included brand and visual identity specifics, creative look and feel, collateral samples, and a marketing promotions plan. Sarah worked with the marketing coordinator and web team to create all of the visual assets needed to execute the campaign. The visual strategy we developed aligned with and built on the established 175th visuals, while creating a vibe that is exciting, bustling, vivid, and ‘happening’.
Specific collateral created for this campaign included: digital signage, web and email graphics, organic and paid social images, flyers, posters, physical signage, swag, print ads, web ads, and assets for a programmers and community partners toolkit.