For many college students, earning decent grades is already a dicey proposition. For the youth of today, rigorous coursework combined with difficult schedules and the temptations of undergraduate life place them between a proverbial Scylla, Charybdis, and other, third, terrible, Greek thing. With so much already on the line, why not make it interesting by having students put their money where their mortar boards are?

 

Ultrinsic, a web-based academic incentive program cleverly hidden inside a real money-based wagering system, was built to do just that. The concept revolves around using real cash rewards to encourage students to reach their academic goals. Students pony up cash against odds calculated from their own past academic performance. If a student outperforms her calculated grade point average, she takes home additional cash. If she falls short, she loses the wagered amount. Of course, savvy students can also purchase insurance against certain outcomes, further helping them tweak the odds to their favor.

 

I was approached to expand the Ultrinsic website and to design a Facebook page and a series of banner ads to help promote the service. At the time, initial work had already been completed for the Ultrinsic website, but no formal style guide had yet been developed. I was tasked with working within the loosely-defined boundaries of the brand to build out these additional elements.