Discovery:
Digifest is a senior showcase event hosted by the Digital Media students at the University of Houston every Spring. The event consists of an array of work and portfolios crafted by each of the seniors throughout their college career and allows potential employers to view the accomplishments, as well as network, with the students. This project aims to encapsulate Digifest, as well as the College of Technology, within in a personalized invitation.
My team member, McKenzie Richardson and I researched both the event itself, as well as the College of Technology. On the website it states that “[the College of Technology] is on the rise and going places with a momentum that cannot be stopped.” Marrying that idea with the Digital Media program’s core beliefs: "to get the right message, to the right person, at the right time, with the right media," we developed a concept statement for Digifest:
“As technology is undeniably on the rise, so is the need for digital media. It is exactly this movement that Digifest captures, showcasing the applied science, technology, and ingenuity behind it all. It illustrates the importance of adaptability and readiness in digital media marketing and artistry today.”
Design:
Applying the concept of adaptability and readiness, we wanted to ensure that the receivers of our invitations instantly got this impression.
To eliminate the chance of the receiver habitually tossing our postcard in the trash, McKenzie and I also wanted our postcard to have attitude and presence.
I designed several typographic mock- ups in Adobe Illustrator, leaning heavily toward big text and bold colors (Figure 2). Dimension and movement was added by skewing the type. (Figure 1). The design came alive when the digital media-inspired pattern (made in Illustrator) was added for the background (Figure 3).
Personalization:
McKenzie mined and created a database (Figure 6) of recipients, including key details such as the company of each individual, their position, gender, whether they were alumni from the Digital Media Program, etc.
Recipients were segmented into four major areas of emphasis (all included in the database):
- graphic/web design
- video/photographers
- print specialists
- social media marketers
We then designed multiple variations of the back of the invitation, where each design was personalized to each recipient (Figure 6, top of page).
Using XMPie Campus in Adobe InDesign, the variable content included:
- header
- body copy
- image
- mailing address
The variable body copy was predominantly segmented by field; however, each segment was then broken into subsegments:
- alumni or non-alumni
- gender
