THE DETAILS ARE IN THE DESIGN

The Seattle University Viewbook is one of my favorite projects each year. The 2024-25 publication was completely redesigned to meet new brand standards and better reach the target audience. The design was simplified overall and features bold photography, clean typography, and minimal text. 
What is a university viewbook? It's the primary publication used for recruiting students to a university. The target audience is high school students with their parents as a secondary audience.

This viewbook is 28 pages in length. I worked closely with the Office of Admissions in creating this piece as well as the staff writer, managing editor, university photographer, and print vendor. 

Poster Templates

Each year I design poster templates. When students write their application essay an inspiring quote is selected from it, printed on a poster and mailed to the student after they receive an acceptance letter. This design won the Best of CASE District VIII Award for Specialty Pieces Design in 2024.
My poster designs also won a CASE gold award in 2019. The challenge with these is developing multiple templates that can fit differing quote lengths for thousands of quotes. 

2023-2024 Viewbook

The viewbook introduces prospective students to Seattle University with the goal of building awareness of the university and encouraging them to apply for admission. It conveys the dynamic, progressive SU brand and student experience through vibrant images, thoughtful design elements, noteworthy profiles (students, faculty, programs) and bold typography. 

This piece won the 2024 CASE District VIII award for viewbook design.

The cover features a die cut hawk—the university mascot—on a flood of Seattle University red. The image on the interior page shows through the hawk shape, with the Seattle Space Needle centered in the cutout when viewing the cover. 
​
Part of what made this project distinctive behind the scenes was the staff who worked on it. Four of the eight staff in undergraduate admissions who worked on the viewbook left the university before it was published and two joined the project part way through the design. I was the only designer on this project. With such a lean team I take pride in this piece and its positive impact on enrollment.

Seattle University Magazine

The Seattle University Magazine, Spring 2017 issue was so much fun to put together. I especially enjoyed creating the cover, which won a CASE Gold Award.
Additional magazine issues that I worked on as lead designer:
Winter 2018 (view)
​Fall 2018 (view)
Winter 2017 (view)
Fall 2017 (view)

Academic Guide

The Academic Guide is a 28-page brochure looking more closely at the scholastic excellence of the university. I designed the cover with a clear foil hawk. 
The Academic Guide won the 2021 Educational Advertising Merit Award in the Brochure category. 

A sampling of recent work

Highlighted Projects

International Guide

This booklet provides information tailored to the international audience of both graduate and undergraduate students.

2019 President's Report

The President’s Report shares highlights and successes from the past year and builds the reputation of the university, which in turn can be reflected on national ranking models. The combination of graphic, illustrative and photographic features within the report enhance the storytelling and data-focused elements for a compelling printed piece. 

This report featured holographic foil on the cover. (Check out the video for the full effect.)

Video by Carter Johnson. 

Red Talks Speaker Series

Working with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, I developed a logo and brand for a new campus speaker series, rooted within the Seattle University brand,

​The project included posters, rack cards, signage and presentation deck concepts. 

Undergraduate Viewbook 2018-19

2018 President's Report

The President’s Report shares highlights and successes from the past year and builds the reputation of the university. I worked as lead designer for this issue with the other designers in my department. 

Brand Guide

Brand standards make me happy.

I worked with Trinity through two re-branding processes and helped to both develop and implement organization-wide brand standards. During the last rebranding process, I designed this 10 page "quick guide to brand standards" to help articulate the new brand for the many departments within the college.

Advance Magazine

This 20 page publication for Trinity Lutheran College alumni was one of my favorites projects. It was published two to three times per year. Originally a much shorter newsletter, over 10 years I worked to redesign the Advance into a magazine. The  design received rave reviews from alumni and board members.

Viewbook

A Viewbook is the primary recruiting piece for a college. This 16-page booklet I designed was used throughout the 2013-2014 recruitment cycle. At the end of the cycle, the college saw 13% enrollment growth from previous academic year.

Strategic Plan

Designed to present to the Board of Directors, creating this beautiful, clean, text heavy piece was a fun challenge on a very tight deadline. 

The Trinity Gala

Every aspect of this incredibly successful fundraising event was branded, from the PowerPoint template to the elevator signs.

​Seen here are the table captain handbook, event program and a promotional email.

Viewbook

Working with new brand requirements, this Trinity Lutheran College viewbook was used throughout the 2014-2015 school year.

Academic Program Brochures

This brochure series focused on 10 college majors and involved collaborating with each department chair, working with a wide variety of personalities and communication styles. The design challenge was following a consistent format while pointing out the distinctiveness of each program. All the stakeholders involved were very happy with the end result. 

Fundraising Campaign 

The Adventure Starts Here Campaign combined a fun logo design, direct mail piece, custom online donation form and multiple email and social media campaigns.

Bus Ad

It's always fun to see your work drive past. 
​
Photo courtesy of Blue Door Studio Photography. 

Enrollment Forms

Forms don't have to be boring. This stagger cut package displays neatly within a presentation folder.

Lecture Promotion

This is my favorite of many lecture promotion designs because of the challenge it presented. I was asked to create a poster for a lecture on human trafficking without using a female image, and to portray a sense of hope and freedom in the design. I was also asked to incorporate the letter "L" into the design in honor of the sponsor. The client and I were both very happy with the end result. 

Concert Promotion

Annual concerts required promotional posters with matching direct mail postcards, as well as an event program.

Information Sheet

When an entire annual report needed to be condensed into a single sheet of paper, the best option was to find the highlights and make the information as visual as possible.

Preschool Logo

Acorn Learning Center is an urban nature preschool located in downtown Everett. The preschool seeks to increase the child's awareness of the natural world, so earthy colors were important to the design. They requested an acorn illustration be incorporated as well.

Book Cover

For Paddle Pilgrim, author David Ellingson requested a cover design using a personal photo and a highlight of his kayak paddle.

Book Cover & Layout

For his devotional book Biblical Wisdom for a Digital Age, author David Ellingson requested a cover design that reflected an "old school bible" combined with technology.

The interior page layout had to leave room for margin notes and reflection responses while accommodating variable word counts.