eduWeb Conference
July 30–August 1, 2012

The Elephant in the Chat Room
Everyone is doing social media now. But is social media working for your institution, and how can you determine whether it is working? How do you know if you’re getting a return on the investment? During this topic table on Tuesday, July 31, 8–9 a.m., we will address the elephant in the chat room: is social media working, and how do you know?

We will interview 10 colleges about whether their social media efforts are working within the college’s overall marketing communications plan. We will ask the following questions:

• How does social media play into your communications plan?
• What percentage of your efforts are used for social media?
• How do you measure the return on investment? What is your ROI?
• How long have you implemented social media into your communications plan?
• What kind of budget do you spend on this?
• Who uses social media the most? Public relations, alumni department, admissions, etc.?

It’s All About You: A Moderated Forum for Discussion
There seems to be little opportunity for eduWeb attendees to engage each other in conversation, to share ideas, problems, solutions, etc. with each other. This panel would provide such an opportunity. We will invite some pros in our industry to serve as panelists, and we will use some of our case studies as a background, but we will ask audience members to voice their questions and get ideas from other audience members. This panel will take place on Wednesday, August 1, at noon.

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A website that archives old websites.

Here’s a site that showcases world-changing ideas and innovation. Amazing case studies and interviews with top designers are regular features.

Gold-medal design? The Olympics are coming, and soon we’ll all be admiring or complaining about the controversial 2012 London Olympic logo, shown at left. The Olympic logo controversy might extend to Madrid if it is chosen as the host city for the 2020 Olympics. The proposed logo, shown at right, displays the letter “M” and the numeral “20” in script that many read as “20020.” Talk about long-range planning!

Predicting future tech Tablets, laptops, cloud computing, and natural language interpretation are just a few of the technologies in flux. Is there a way to predict what the future holds for these and other technologies? A London-based trend forecasting firm is focused on just that task. Envisioning Technology conducts research that helps us make better decisions about our future technological needs. Click the infographic above for a full summary of existing tech and future trends.

1. Have a single message.
2. Write about a single event, not about the time in a person’s life.
3. Be frugal with words.
4. Create a sense of anticipation. Make the reader wonder what’s next.
5. Use words to paint vivid pictures.
6. Change something in the reader’s mind—perhaps a perception, or the direction of the story.
7. Be ruthless in purging cliché and lazy phrasing from your drafts. This helps to avoid flatness of tone.
8. Keep a copy of William Zinsser’s On Writing Well near your desk. Flip through it whenever your words feel clumsy.

Contributed by Brenda

While you’re in the storytelling mode, check out Nancy Duarte’s wonderful Tedx talk on using storytelling to create compelling presentations.

I’ve known for some time that Dave Dryden, Director of Creative Services at Clemson University, is an amazing designer. I did not realize until we became Facebook friends that he is also an amazing cook. Dave often posts gorgeous photos and descriptions of his tantalizing kitchen creations, including such treats as mint, parsley, and chive soufflé; sun-dried tomato and red pepper fettuccine with homemade ciabatta; and sweet potato soup with brussels sprouts, red pepper, onion, and carrot. Are you hungry yet?

We decided to give Dave a call to learn more about his creativity at the office and in the kitchen. We were not surprised when Dave explained that there are many parallels between the two. “In both places you have problems to solve,” he explains. “For example, you look in the fridge and see that you only have three things in there to cook. What can you make out of them?” Other problems that are shared include working with deadlines, the demands of pleasing large or small groups of people, and the constraints of budget. The successful designer approaches these problems as eagerly as the successful cook.

Above all, Dave loves making bread. “Bread baking is therapeutic to me. I enjoy the tactile, sensual qualities of kneading dough and the zen-like experience of watching the bread rise and come to life. There is something timeless and peaceful about it.” It only takes three basic ingredients—yeast, flour, and water—to make bread. Those simple ingredients are the starting point for endless variety. The same can be said for the creative process: start simply, know the fundamentals, then expand outward from there. Dave recalls the advice he gave to one of his students who was over-complicating a design. “I told her she had to keep reducing the design until she got to the basic elements. You have to taste each ingredient distinctly to get the overall design to work.” That’s great advice for the office and the kitchen. Thank you and bon appétit, Dave!

Contributed by Brenda and Domenica

Dave Dryden is the director of Clemson University’s Office of Creative Services, which is focused on branding, digital and interactive communication, advertising, print, and video. His 25-member staff works closely with a variety of clients across campus. Dave serves on the board of directors for the University and College Designers Association (UCDA) and was president of the organization in 1995 and again in 2011.

Enduring design One of the most widespread designs in the world today was done pro bono for the FDA. Burkey Belser of Greenfield/Belser Design in Washington, D.C., took on the task of creating a clean, consistent typographic hierarchy for the nutrition facts label that appears on all food packaging. The FDA requested a redesigned label that would clearly display all ingredients with an emphasis on calorie and fat content to help fend off an emerging obesity epidemic.

The label above shows a grand total of 27 pieces of information. It is so well balanced that it reads effortlessly. Typography (helvetica black and regular weights) and rules of varying thicknesses group the information into sections. Portion size, calories, and fat content are most prominent.

The revised design was launched in 1992 and was awarded a Presidential Design Award in 1997. That it is still fresh 20 years later is a true design success story and a brilliant reminder of the power of simplicity.

Contributed by Domenica

Shelf life Books are like old friends. Even though I enjoy traveling with my iPad, mostly because I no longer need to stuff big heavy books in my carry-on, I still love keeping favorite books close by on my bookshelves.

That’s why I have mixed feelings about using books as objects to be sculpted, torn, folded, or otherwise shaped into art. Part of me is unsettled when I see a book used for its shape instead of its content. Some of the art is imaginative and breathtakingly beautiful. Still, this new art form is a sign of a sea change in our relationship with books. Books were once revered. We handled them gently and scolded anyone who folded down a corner to mark a page. We packed our books like precious gems as we moved from one house to the next. We lent them out only to friends who we trusted to return them.

Tablet readers have allowed us to look at printed books in ways that were at one time inconceivable. I admire what artists are doing with books as objects, but I’m reassured when I remember my bookshelves at home and the friends there that I turn to for long, slowly unfolding conversations.

Contributed by Domenica

All that glitters I recently bought a cool, new 3-D video camera for a vacation trip to Mexico. I spent the flight time studying the owners’ manual and practicing shooting techniques on my complimentary bag of pretzels, my mini pillow, and my tray in the upright and down position. Soon I learned how to get the best effects and in my mind I sketched out a storyboard of eye-popping video captures. By the time we arrived, I was confident in my ability to use all the functions. I captured the palm trees, the boat trip, the scorpion on the wall that was hiding behind a cushion, and, of course, the margaritas. The 3-D effect was impressive.

An interesting thing happened when I returned home and shared the video with others. Everyone commented on the technology of the camera and the 3-D effects. They wanted to know where I got the camera, how much it cost, and whether they could view 3-D on their computer screen or TV. I realized the camera and techniques were getting all the attention while the subject matter went unnoticed.

It’s easy to be dazzled by the latest technological tool. It’s more important, though, to find the best way to engage your audience and deliver a memorable message.

Contributed by Brenda

The roots of creativity I met Kevin Day in a photo critique group on Flickr and became an avid fan of his exquisite photographic study of a dead tree near his home in Slough, England. Kevin has been observing and photographing the tree for over five years, and I have watched his photo study grow from a few dozen shots to several hundred.

Kevin is fascinated by the effect that time of day and season of the year have on the landscape. He says, “It has fascinated me more than anything else. There is this wonderful old tree unchanging over the years and yet I can take hundreds of photos of it during the seasons and very few of them look the same. It is all about the change around the constant.”

The “change around the constant” is the heart of keeping creative work fresh and compelling. Whether you are a campus photographer who feels exasperated by another assignment to shoot Old Main or a writer at a loss on how to approach the millionth student profile, finding the unexpected within the mundane could be the solution to the problem.

Contributed by Domenica

Photo series above by Kevin Day. Click to see more photos in Kevin’s Dead Tree series.

Are your communications tired and losing traction? Cram Quarterly is here to help you get back on the road to creativity.

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Hold the phone Made to plug into your iPhone’s headphone jack, these old-school receivers bring back memories of corded telephones.

Four resources for infographic creators Get your data from Google Public Data Explorer, or incorporate your own data. Then, use Hohli to make customized scatter plots, Venn diagrams, bar graphs, and other charts. Need something less linear? Wordle generates colorful word clouds from text or a website, and Visual.ly is a site where you can create graphics that tell a story without all the numbers.

Inspiring minds If you’re a designer looking for visual inspiration, check out Designspiration to view images that others have found invigorating.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall The New York Times Company R&D department created a prototype mirror/tablet that helps you incorporate digital information into your daily routine. If made commercially available, the device would allow you to check the weather while you’re brushing your teeth, for example. The mirror responds to voice commands so you can have your hands free. I wonder how many people would actually use a “smart mirror” and how many would resent the intrusion of information into one of the few rest rooms left in the house.

Pin-up URL A new online community, Pinterest, provides users with a free virtual pinboard where they can save images of things found on the Internet. Users can come back to their pins later, organize pins into categories (known as boards), share with “followers” or their friends on Facebook, and see what others are pinning. Oberlin College, for example, has its own Pinterest, which reflects the culture of its campus community.

GCF created an Investors Report for Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business as a thank-you to donors for their support. Not only does the report thank donors, but it also uses engaging infographics to showcase what their donations made possible.

On December 7, 2011, Brenda led a CASE Online Speaker Series called “Get Real, Get Read: Producing a Magazine Your Alumni Will Read” with Dale Keiger, University Publications, Johns Hopkins University, and Betsy Winter-Hall, Executive Director, Alumni & Development Communications, Temple Magazine. The webinar was so well attended that our panel was unable to answer all of the audience questions in the allotted time. Below is a selection of questions answered after the webinar by Brenda, Betsy, Tina Hay, Editor of The Penn Stater magazine, and Michael B. Shavelson, Editor in Chief of Columbia Magazine.

1. What are some specific things that you can do in a print magazine that you can’t do otherwise?
Betsy: You can control the layout—placement of the elements in relation to one another, fonts, etc. This is something HTML is not good at, as its formatting is so browser-specific. And attempts to fully control online design—PDF, Flash—really undermine the strengths of the web, which are access and information. Also, part of the relationship with readers is being in their home, in their hands. That tangibility is very powerful.

Tina: The print version is portable, easier on the eye, and does more justice to the design than an online version would.

Brenda: Print magazines also allow for more focus. If a an online reader links to another article, they move away from your magazine and can easily get lost on another site, never to return.

2. What are your thoughts on putting paid advertising in the magazine?
Betsy: I think it can serve several good functions; in addition to offsetting costs, it is legitimizing (it makes the publication feel more like a consumer magazine) and it highlights places and products relating to the university and our readers’ experience of it. My aim is for Temple magazine to contain paid advertising within a couple of years. The challenges, of course, are staffing and postage (we currently mail at nonprofit rate, which would not be permitted with paid ads).

Tina: We’ve done it for many years—probably 20 or more. It helps fund some of the magazine’s expenses, but it does not completely underwrite the cost of the magazine.

Michael: I strongly endorse paid advertising, although selling print advertising has become more and more difficult. Ad revenue helps the bottom line, of course, and that might promote greater independence for the magazine. Paid ads also make the magazine look more serious.

3. What tools do you use to gauge readership?
Tina: We participated in the CASE readership survey, which I highly recommend, and we also do a small survey after every single issue of the magazine. The sample size on the latter is very small, but over time—and we’ve been doing it for 14 years, I think—we’ve amassed a lot of data. The trends are unmistakable and very informative for us. I’d be happy to share a PDF explaining this every-issue survey; just send me an email at tinahay@psu.edu.

Michael: Focus groups, letters to the editor, and a survey of readers conducted by an outside research firm have all been helpful to us.

Brenda: Find out more about the CASE national readership survey here (CASE log-in required).

4. Can you provide some examples of compelling stories that will draw in readers? What content is the most engaging and attractive to readers of alumni magazines?
Betsy: Answered broadly, people like reading about things they see as relevant—to themselves and to the larger world. We find that our readers like knowing about the institution’s role in activities that are meaningful or tangible to them—such as laser research at Temple that could change how common surgeries are performed, and a nonprofit run by alumni that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people.

Tina: I could talk about this for days! In general I think readers are drawn more to stories, i.e., to strong storytelling with good narratives, some human interest, some emotion, etc., and less to news releases. They’re more interested in the personal than the institutional.

Michael: The magic is in the mix. The content needs to be varied. Knowing your audience is the great art of editing a magazine. Sports coverage is of no interest to some alumni groups, but essential reading to others. Fiction to some audiences is a welcome treat and probably of no appeal to others.

5. How do you convince administration to take risks with magazine content and design?
Tina: That’s a very common challenge in our business, isn’t it? I could talk about that for hours too! Around here we talk about being “reader centric,” about competing (with newsstand magazines and all the other media out there) for people’s attention, etc. You might also try baby steps … making small incremental changes. Very short answer to a big dilemma, I realize.

Michael: Tell your boss, “We need to respect our readers.”

Brenda: Risk means stretching your boundaries, going into new, unexpected territory. A publication that is willing to take those steps will find readers piling on for the ride. If everything is “safe,” why bother leaving home?

I like Jeff Lott’s suggestion of volunteering for committees outside your department. This will help others develop a level of respect for the work you do. If you have their respect they will give you the opportunity to take more risk.

6. How much should fundraising appeals be a part of the magazine?
Michael: There should be a firewall between fundraising and editorial. When development wants to run an ad, development pays for the ad. On the other hand, some development stories are of legitimate editorial interest. The largest-ever gift a college has ever received should certainly be a lead news story. Or, an engaging story about how a new gift enabled 10 low-income students to attend gratis, or a piece about how another gift permitted a new clinic to be built can be of great interest, as long as what the gift does is more important than the gift itself.

Jean Bevier is a graphic designer with a passion for language, typography, and the open road. Last summer, she bought a new Honda Civic and spent half a year cruising around America’s network of secondary roads. From the Lincoln Highway to the Dixie Beeline, she photographed the fading signage that marks the motor courts, drive-in theaters, service stations, roadside stands, and coffee shops of small-town America. Her photographic odyssey has resulted in a series of gorgeous images that chronicle the remnants of our country’s original highway culture. Alarmingly, many of the signs are so weathered and dilapidated that before long they will be gone forever. Also vanishing is the proud connection to place that spurred the roadside signage boom of the 1930s through the 1960s.

Jean explains that the U.S. highway system was originally designed to connect one town with another across the country. Roadside signage helped each town brand its unique persona and entice motorists to stop for a closer look. Today, however, the goal of the interstate system is to bypass towns so that travelers can move from point A to point B in the shortest possible time. This diametric shift cut off the oxygen to countless towns, hastening their economic collapse. Motorists now stop at generic chain hotels and fast food joints clustered at the interstate exit ramps. In essence, we have found a quicker way to get to Nowhere in Particular.

The decline of America’s secondary roads is a cautionary tale for educational communicators. New technologies are like the super highways of communication. Faster, more efficient technology should not replace brand strategy, but instead help us reinforce it.

Click on photos to enlarge, click again to close photos.

Photo series above by Jean Bevier. Click here to see more of Jean’s American signage series.

Jean Bevier is an assistant professor of graphic design at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Jean’s work explores language and typography through a variety of media. Jean is an emeritus member of the University & College Designers Association (UCDA), having served on its Board of Directors as well as co-chairing two national conferences for design educators. She has been a UCDA member since 1990 and currently serves on the UCDA Foundation Board of Directors.

Would this sign save your life? Shown above is an “instructional” sign I saw on a bus. It’s supposed to show you how to open the window in an emergency, but it is completely confusing. The two diagrams look the same, yet one has a red “x” over it. Why is one right and the other wrong? Let’s not wait for a life or death situation to be sure what we say is what we mean.

Contributed by Domenica

Technology and the disappearance of objects The Chicago Tribune, self-styled as “The World’s Greatest Newspaper,” filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and the fate of its venerable building on Michigan Avenue (shown above) is uncertain. As more of us turn to tablets and e-readers, will papers like the Trib end up in the Museum of Obsolete Objects? Recent data show an overall increase in digital newspaper subscriptions, which will help keep journalist enterprises afloat. But the thin pages and rub-off ink of the newspaper might go the way of the rotary phone, the typewriter, and the pocket calculator.

Contributed by Domenica

Competing with the big boys Samsung’s new Galaxy SII is taking on the Goliaths (Apple and Android) who currently dominate the smartphone industry. In recent ads like the one shown above, Samsung pokes fun at blindly loyal Apple customers waiting in line to buy the latest iPhone without considering other options. We applaud Samsung’s approach, which calls attention to how their phones are different from Apple’s: a larger screen, 4G speed, thinner profile, longer battery life. HP similarly distinguishes its tablets from iPads in its advertising. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the most effective form of marketing is to demonstrate how your product or service is different from the competition.

Contributed by Theresa

Contributed by Katie

Amazon’s new cutthroat practices Amazon.com has begun using brick-and-mortar stores as a showcase for products it sells online through its Price Check app. Consumers are encouraged to scan the barcode on a product or take a picture of it, then leave the store and buy the item from Amazon—at a 5% discount. The website lets customers have their cake and eat it, too, by giving them a product they can touch and feel, at a discount price that competitors can’t match. Amazon does not seem interested in the idea that this campaign could drive local retailers out of business. Ultimately the consumer is the biggest loser—fewer jobs in the community and fewer choices in the marketplace.

Contributed by Domenica

Field experience On a recent visit to Chicago, we joined a queue of shoppers waiting to pose for photos in front of the Marshall Field sign on State Street. Sadly, the store is no more. It was bought by Macy’s in 2005 and has been operating as a Macy’s store since September 2006. Field’s may be gone, but it is certainly not forgotten. A survey taken in September 2011 reported that 4 out of 5 Chicagoans still prefer Field’s to Macy’s. There have been protests every year in front of the store, and several customers have crashed shareholders meetings to confront Macy’s CEO. All of this is evidence of the enduring popularity of the Marshall Field brand. Brand loyalty is not reserved for retail businesses—ask any college or university PR director who has been through an institutional name change. The key to making a smooth transition is to move slowly and involve as many people as possible in the rebranding process. Students, alumni, faculty, and community leaders need to be heard. If you move forward without hearing from them, you may be facing some serious post-name-change damage control.

Contributed by Domenica

The clerk texting on his cell phone at a magazine kiosk in Rome is a symbol of the uncertainty facing today’s alumni magazines. Recent surveys find that the majority of alumni still prefer the printed magazine over the electronic version. What will the future hold? We predict it will be a combination of the two.

Is your campus a best-kept secret? Then what’s the secret and why aren’t you telling people about it? Cram Quarterly is here with ideas that will help you become a destination instead of a hidden treasure.

CASE Online Speaker Series
December 7, 2011
12–1:30 p.m.

Get Real, Get Read: Producing a Magazine Your Alumni Will Read
Is your alumni magazine making it to the nightstand, or is it landing in the recycle bin? If your publication isn’t being read, this seminar can help you determine why and what to do about it.

Brenda Foster joins two of higher education’s well-known magazine leaders, Ingrid Heim of Temple University and Dale Keiger of Johns Hopkins University, in a lively discussion that will address the biggest obstacles facing alumni magazines today. How do you produce a better magazine in spite of budget cuts and resource limitations? How can you best manage institutional politics and relationships with stakeholders?

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Typecast Which font will play the starring role in your new website? Google has compiled hundreds of free, open-source fonts that are optimized for the web.

Hollyweb You’ve seen the results of this free movie-making tool on TV commercials and YouTube. Now go make your own!

Stock up on stock photos This article lists at least 15 sources for free stock photos online.

Making art on the iPad If you’re an iPad owner and an artist, look into the new Adobe apps Color Lava, Eazel, and Nav. Color Lava allows you to mix virtual paints to get the colors you want, while Eazel lets you fingerpaint. Nav allows you to work with Photoshop documents on your tablet.

How do you get the attention of your audience?

The key is to show instead of tell. This is exactly what we’ve done with Widener’s new admissions materials. As the university’s branding messages have evolved, the focus shifted to leadership. But the word “leadership” is not memorable, nor is it unique. “Not for followers,” on the other hand, conveys the concept of becoming a leader without using a cliché, and unexpected images drive the idea home: This place is different.

Mike Lee is a Digital Strategy Adviser for AARP and a long-time friend of GCF. He works in the field of mobile development, looking into the future of technology and road-mapping the next year and a half.

What do you think is the most critical tool or skill for educational communicators to have?
It’s important to monitor industry thought leaders on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. At a minimum, use RSS feeds. Get and try to maintain a sense of what is going on out there. Same with mobility/mobile devices—get a smartphone or Android phone, and use it regularly. Try out some apps.

What do you see for the future? What are the latest things to watch for?
Consumer mobile technologies are changing very rapidly. Besides smartphones and tablets, I’d look at what impact may result from the arrival of very low cost e-readers—when you start to see them hanging on a hook in a drug store, or given away as advertising/marketing specialties. Apple, through their marketing and product design, can get away with their higher prices, but Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Samsung are going to work to pull their prices down. All of that will drive the industry. There’s a profound amount of power when the price is dropping every year. Compared to a backpack full of books…there is no comparison. And it’s not lost on these companies that there’s an opportunity to revolutionize the textbook market. In the future, the publisher will give you a device. Books will be copyright protected and locked to the device. You’ll be able to add things like social media, which is another binding force to lock a student into that publisher’s device.

On the macro level, it’s about the “gang of four” companies who are innovating in the consumer market: Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. They are setting the trends; they are into devices, the publishing industry, TV/movies, and social media. Google and Apple are moving aggressively into the education market.

What are your thoughts on apps versus mobile sites?
After a year of developing mobile apps for the iPhone and Android, I am really more in favor of mobile web for nonprofit and educational institutions. If you have the opportunity or strategic reasons and money to create an app, that is great—do it. However, your first priority is launching a version of your existing website that just works on mobile devices, because most phones/tablets have a web browser. Your mobile site should fit on a smartphone screen, and it should be readable. Some companies offer mobile templates.

Does the AARP offer their magazine online? Would they ever eliminate the print version?
AARP does have the largest subscriber base to its magazine, but it’s not something you can just buy—you need a membership, and the magazine is a benefit. Right now, our business model for publications is holding because the membership construct around this can still demand advertising dollars, which offset the cost of printing the magazine. The articles are syndicated to the website, and made available in digital facsimile form (PDF). But we will have challenges like many large publishers, such as what will happen with the postal service.

How do you feel about Google+?
It has grown at a faster rate in the beginning than Facebook and Twitter when they started. They’ve also opened the development end so people can write code to enhance the functionality in ways that Google hasn’t imagined. There will never be one dominant company that owns social media, because these companies all have access to a lot of the same basic tools and approaches (computer chips, servers, etc.).

Any final advice?
The best way to keep up with new developments, both social and mobile, is to immerse yourself. Google calls that dogfooding. There is nothing like firsthand experiences. You can read all you want, but to get a sense of how new technologies work you need to get intimately involved.

See the Cool Tools section for Mike’s recommended news blogs.

Grand Prix faux pas During the Grand Prix race held in Baltimore, I saw a banner across from the stands with a large QR code printed on it. Unfortunately, it was too far away for anyone to capture the code with a smart phone. Uh-oh! Poor planning caused that ad campaign to crash and burn. It’s so important to think through how we use the new tech tools. With budgets tighter than a racecar driver’s harness, we need to make sure every dollar is spent on materials that are actually designed to reach our audiences.

Contributed by Theresa

QR code idea In our last newsletter, we talked about the importance of visiting campus in person. But there are some visitors who either don’t take the guided tour or can only be on campus when you are not. In preparation for these self-guided guests, many institutions are adding QR codes to signage. For example, a science building might feature a QR code that links to a video tour of the lab’s latest equipment. According to this article, providing more information helps potential consumers get closer to making a decision. Following that logic, QR codes around campus could help your prospects become more certain about their decision to apply.

Contributed by Katie

Stand up and deliver Sitting? You might want to stand up for this news. Apparently, sitting all day can significantly shorten your life span and increase your risk for heart disease. What’s a desk worker to do? Enter stand-up desks. This new-fangled furniture allows you to work at your computer while standing. But wait … can’t standing all day result in foot pain, varicose veins, and poor circulation? Perhaps a combination of sitting and standing is key.

Contributed by Jenny

Showing Baltimore some love Baltimore artist Michael Owen just completed his seventh and largest wall mural to date, one of a series of 20 planned paintings around the city. The “Love” message, spelled out letter by letter in hand gestures, contrasts with gritty urban surroundings and serves as encouragement to care—about each other and about the city.

Contributed by Katie

Beyond green-washing Coca-Cola is putting their advertising money where their mouth is with a new billboard concept in Manila, Philippines. The billboard, which celebrates a partnership between the soda giant and the World Wide Fund for Nature–Philippines, is covered with tea plants, each of which can absorb an average of 13 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year. What we like about the sign (besides cleaner air) is that Coca-Cola isn’t just saying that they’re green—they’re actually putting the message to work and making it stronger than words. Showing your audiences by doing is always more powerful than simply saying it.

Contributed by Theresa

Photography class A new series of videos shares advice from famous photographer Steve McCurry on how to take great pictures … advice that campus photographers and other communicators can use as they produce still and video images for print and online use. Steve McCurry is an outstanding photographer who created the iconic National Geographic cover shown above.

Contributed by Domenica

Photos series below by Giovanna Del Bufalo.
Click on photos to enlarge, click on large photo to close.

Technology got you down? Don’t worry, Cram Quarterly is here with tips and topics to keep you ahead of the technological curve.

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Tech-knowledge-y Here are four tech sites you might want to follow if you don’t already.

mashable.com The hottest site with news about social media, new technology, etc. You should have looked at this site yesterday!

engadget.com Learn about late-breaking tech gadgets.

wired.com If you don’t subscribe to the magazine, which has gorgeous covers, at least check out their news site. Covers all aspects of technology.

techcrunch.com This site compiles all of the gadget, app, tech company acquisitions, and news in one place for your perusal.

Getting the 21st century right The latest issue of ONE, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School alumni magazine, just hit mailboxes. The theme for the Spring/Summer 2011 issue is “Getting the 21st Century Right: Making our way toward a more perfect union, in business, education, and city design.” Barbara Wallace, the magazine’s executive editor, notes that “ultimately, getting it right is about creative, informed, and moral thinking—applying knowledge, empathy, and originality to the radically new economic, social, environmental, and technological challenges this century brings.”

The New Yorker cover above shows parents looking at their cell phones while kids trick-or-treat. Which world is more real: the one in which the parents are engaged, or the children? This is the dilemma we are faced with today. When the real and the virtual worlds collide, which one prevails?

In the case of the campus tour, nothing quite compares to being there in person. Walking around campus allows visitors to really experience what it’s like to live at an institution. A campus tour also fosters the all-important connection to other human beings. It allows visitors to interact with other students, professors, and admissions staff in a way that doesn’t happen on the computer or even on the phone. So if you’re adding QR codes to buildings and signage for the campus tour, and considering offering tour participants sustainability reports, don’t neglect the personal interaction and sensory experiences that make a campus tour important.

There’s a bit of mystery surrounding who designed the iconic Coca-Cola bottle. A prevalent myth holds that the shape was mistakenly based on the cacao pod. Another credits famous industrial designer Raymond Loewy for the shape, but he didn’t start working for the soda giant until after the bottle was put into use.

The design of the “hobble skirt” bottle actually sprang from a marketing need. Coca-Cola sought a container that would make their product stand out from other sodas, even if the label fell off in the ice bucket. The company challenged its bottle suppliers to a design contest in 1915.

At that time, Earl R. Dean was a supervisor of the bottle molding room at the Root Glass Company, one of Coke’s bottle suppliers. He decided to participate in the contest and wanted to base his design on one of the two key ingredients of Coca-Cola: the kola nut or the coca leaf. Alas, the local library contained no information or pictures of either item. While conducting his search, however, Dean noticed the cacao pod and its striations. Inspiration struck, and the hobble skirt bottle was born.

Although Dean’s design won the contest, his original prototype never reached the production line. The shape was too wide in the middle, which caused the bottles to fall off the conveyor belt. Dean modified the bottle a bit to make it more stable, and now it is an integral part of Coca-Cola’s brand.

Not only is the story of the hobble skirt bottle an interesting one, but it also shows that sometimes, great design results from happenstance. And, even though Dean’s prototype had to be adjusted, it didn’t lose its beauty or practicality. The hobble skirt bottle, Raymond Loewy said later, is “the most perfectly designed package in the world.”

A lifetime of history and over 1.5 million pieces of wood type reside at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. While visiting, GCF discovered the story of a company that has survived in spite of its original product line becoming obsolete.

When the J.E. Hamilton Holly Wood Type Company was founded in 1880, it manufactured wood type for printing. Its Midwest location suited the business well as the population grew and print shops and newspapers flourished. Purchasing wood type from the east and having it shipped was too costly, so these fledgling businesses turned to Hamilton instead.

As metal type began to replace wood type over the years, Hamilton faced a choice: close down or evolve. The company chose the latter and completely transformed its product line to stay in business. They began making medical cabinets, and then medical tables. The company even branched out to metal cabinets for dryers as modern conveniences flooded into homes. Today, the company is still in existence as Thermo Fisher Scientific, a producer of lab equipment.

When museum director Jim Moran told us the Hamilton story, we were struck by the company’s ability to change their brand to fit the times. The museum has taken a page from Hamilton’s book as well. Retail giant Target is planning to release a new line of clothing with images from the museum’s Globe Printing Plate collection. This collaboration could increase the visibility of the museum and open the door for fundraising opportunities that could help preserve the history of wood type—and the Hamilton company—for future generations.

Sustaining interest When GCF landed in Milwaukee for our company retreat, we began with a tour of the historic Miller Brewing Company and a few beer samples. At the end of our tour, our guide mentioned the company’s commitment to the environment and invited everyone to take a copy of their sustainability report available at the back of the room. We were impressed. Your campus tour guides could do something similar at the end of a campus tour to emphasize your school’s sustainability commitment. We’ve noticed in looking at university Facebook pages that fans are interested in what colleges are doing to become more environmentally friendly. Have you thought about offering prospective students and their parents a sustainability report of your own?

Contributed by Theresa

Don’t filter out the truth Online organizer Eli Pariser gave a TED talk in which he cautioned that internet filters, now in use by Facebook, Google, Yahoo! News, and others, are creating individual information bubbles in which each of us is isolated. “The internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see,” he says, “but not necessarily what we need to see.” These filters often keep us from being exposed to challenging or uncomfortable points of view. As marketers, we need to welcome all voices that inform a discussion on Facebook, in our alumni magazines, or in conversations around campus.

Contributed by Theresa and Katie

Magazines resist the tide of e-readers Sitting on the beach this summer, I did not see any e-readers, such as the Kindle or the Nook, in the hands of my fellow beachcombers. I did, however, see many dog-eared paperback books and rolled-up magazines. People are still holding on to magazines and other print pieces. Paper publications are lightweight and inexpensive, and they can weather a bit of sand or water. My beach observations were supported by some research GCF recently conducted on a client’s magazine. People enjoy getting a print piece in the mail: it arrives directly in the mailbox, is personally addressed, and has all of the portability and durability the e-readers just do not have.

Contributed by Jenny

Are you ready for zombies? The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a blog entry explaining how to prepare for an invasion of the undead. The publicity stunt called attention to emergency preparedness no matter what the circumstance—whether a hurricane, an epidemic, or another kind of disaster. The blog, which normally sees 1,000 hits per entry, suddenly underwent a barrage of nearly one million hits (according to an article in the Seattle Times). The CDC’s server-crashing article shows that even the government is playing by social media rules. Humor gets people’s attention, and pop-culture phenomena like zombies can actually help get an important message across by making it memorable and shareable.

Contributed by Theresa

Reinventing the pinhole camera One of the lessons I learned in my first photography class was how to make a pinhole camera. As you can see in the image above, my camera was hand-made with cardboard and duct tape. I had no idea back then that the pinhole camera could be taken to the unexpected new territory explored in the photos of Abelardo Morell. Morell transforms entire rooms into camera obscura devices using the same idea behind the pinhole camera. He then photographs the images projected on the walls—astonishing reflections of the views outside the room. The boundaries of creativity are always expanding thanks to innovative ways of seeing by artists like Morell.

Photo series below by Abelardo Morell.
Click on photos to enlarge, click on large photo to close.

Contributed by Katie

Facing a communications hurdle? The latest issue of Cram Quarterly is here with news, ideas, and tips to give you a leg up. Click here for more photos by Matthew Lester.

eduWeb Conference
August 1–3, 2011

@eduWeb #students #facebook #twitter #youtube #in
What do college-age students think about institutions’ social media efforts? Which social sites do students prefer, and what is the value of those sites to them? What are your fellow institutions doing with social media today? On which sites are they most active? Are you doing what you want in social media or what your audience wants? We’ll discuss answers to these questions and more.

It’s a Mobile World: Innovative Use of Mobile Tagging in Higher Education
We will also be conducting a Tuesday morning Topic Table about innovative ways that mobile tag technologies can impact higher education. Audience members will experience the use of mobile tags in interactive recruitment and advancement applications firsthand.

…on Facebook

…on Twitter

May I take your order? Now there’s an iPhone app that allows you to order food at restaurants without actually talking to a person.

Check your tone A new software by Lymbix checks the tone of your emails for you.

Lost Generation? This clever video literally turns over negative perceptions about the so-called “lost generation.”

Is it really hip to be square? JCPenney has joined the ranks of companies with a disappointing redesigned logo. As with the failed Gap logo redesign, this one features an awkwardly placed square in relation to the type. Why in the world would another retail company release a logo so similar to one that caused such a controversy that it was withdrawn?

Puzzling For the 25^th Anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube, the ad above features a funny, unique image portraying just how long it takes to learn the art of “cubing.”

Something to talk about We all know that cigarettes can kill, but this ad for an international anti-smoking campaign is a very smart and powerful image that is sure to spark new conversation and reflection.

GCF worked with The Pew Charitable Trusts to create a brochure to inspire major gifts for the Global Ocean Legacy campaign. This campaign raises funds to protect marine reserves throughout the world’s oceans, providing ocean-scale ecosystem benefits that help conserve global marine heritage. The brochure was used as a handout to potential donors at a fundraising dinner. The small size was purposeful—the brochure was designed to make it fit easily into a coat pocket or purse. The cover copy, “A small brochure about the largest ocean protection program on the planet,” reinforces the idea that a big message is being delivered in a small package.

The GCF team is always looking for the latest tool that will help transform the way we communicate with potential donors and prospective students. Lately, we’ve been exploring the idea of 2D tag technology. According to Bob Blonchek of Razoron Mobile, “The number of barcodes scanned grew by 700% last year. There were over a billion and a half Microsoft barcodes published in the last year. It’s becoming ubiquitous, tying the virtual world together with the physical world through mobile phones.”

In an interview with Brenda, Bob explained how his company’s “razcodes” can help us make QR tags more interactive and more interesting to higher education audiences. Initially, razcode users set up a profile with all of their personal contact information, including a link to their PayPal account. Then, each time a razcode is scanned, the user can decide how much information to share with the institution that provided the code.

In the case of potential donors, Bob explains, “razcodes turn the donor’s smart phone into a digital wallet. The potential donor can simply scan a mobile tag and make a donation using PayPal.” This expands the potential for gifts, because unlike Give by Cell programs, razcodes allow donors to give unlimited amounts. Additionally, a donor can choose to remain anonymous rather than providing his or her personal information with the institution.

Razcodes have potential for creativity in recruitment settings as well. “We all know that college-age kids are mobile addicted,” Bob points out. “Now you can put a barcode on your booth at a college fair, and a student can walk by, scan in that barcode with his or her phone, and say please send my information to that university.” This sharing of information goes way beyond the usual QR tag, which typically takes a visitor to an existing web page or video.

How successful would an anonymous donor campaign be? Would allowing donors to remain anonymous open new doors? Would more prospective students share their information with colleges if they could do so with the touch of a few buttons on their smart phone? The truth is, we won’t know until we try it. But we do know that razcode users can interact with the institution in ways that were not possible before.

Many years ago, I heard an unforgettable lecture in Baltimore by Tom Bentkowski, then design director of Life magazine. As he was preparing to leave his home in New York, he accidentally forgot the tray of slides he had prepared for the presentation. (Yes, this was in those quaint pre-PowerPoint days.) His office in Manhattan was closed, and there was no way to retrieve the slides in time for the lecture. What to do? Could a designer talk about his work without the visuals? Tom proved that yes, he could.

He walked on stage with apologies for the missing slides and then did a marvelous thing. He asked everyone in the audience to close their eyes and visualize a painting. He described a work by Van Gogh—golden wheat fields, furrows of bright and dark blue paint in the sky, with strokes of black paint forming a flock of crows above the fields. Once we all had this scene of pastoral beauty clearly in our minds, Tom asked us to imagine the same painting but now with a caption that reads, “This is one of the last paintings by Van Gogh before he put a gun to his head and killed himself.” His point was that a caption can add information that can change the way we react to an image. I think it’s an excellent point and one that I remember whenever I see a photo that could’ve been more meaningful with a well-crafted caption.

What I remember even more poignantly, though, was the way Tom turned the crisis of the missing slides into an opportunity. Instead of bowing out at the last minute, he showed us that courage and quick thinking is the way to rise above a problem.

Contributed by Brenda

Viral video Why should you care about viral videos? Because they give us a common language with which to reach audiences. Geico has shown that it knows how to harness the popularity of viral videos. The original viral video (warning: contains language that some might find offensive) highlights the stubborn refusal of a talking bear to accept an HTC Evo in place of an iPhone4. The Geico ad features the same talking bears, and the inside joke made me chuckle. It’s a funny, smart, and memorable commercial for those of us who are familiar with the original.

Contributed by Katie

Contributed by Halley

Keyword fail I recently had a good laugh at the expense of Google Ads. The article above trashes the practice of inserting loose postcards in magazines, but the Google Ad at the bottom offers fast, full-color postcard printing. The humorous juxtaposition reminds us that although technology—such as keywords and SEO terms—can help drive visitors to our websites and make our jobs easier, the intricate back-end programming doesn’t always work the way we think it will.

Contributed by Theresa

Beyond brand recognition One sure sign of a powerful brand is when it becomes part of the vernacular. How many times a day do you say, “Let’s Google it?” When you cut your finger, you don’t reach for an adhesive bandage, you grab a Band-Aid. If you’re wondering how this principle can apply to institutions, take a look at the viewbook above. Our themeline, “Being Gilman,” originated in a conversation between a coach and his athletes. The coach encouraged his players to ask themselves if they were “being Gilman” by embodying the school’s values. Is your brand strong enough to make a similar transition?

Contributed by Halley and Brenda

Apple didn’t fall far from the tree No design is created in a void; there’s a predecessor to almost everything. Although we’ve extolled the virtues of Apple and chided those who have tried unsuccessfully to copy the company’s success, Jonathan Ive (Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design) took his inspiration from forerunner Dieter Rams. Rams designed products for Braun in the 50s and 60s and promoted ten principles of good design. His tenets include the idea that good design is innovative and developed in tandem with innovative technology. He also says that design should make a product more useful, a guideline that the Eye-One-On packaging fails to honor. Ive’s implementation of Rams’ thinking shows how to be a true leader instead of a follower: Ive has taken the philosophy of good design to the next level.

Contributed by Noah

The sincerest form of flattery Speaking of trying to mimic Apple, this year’s Motorola Superbowl ad depicts a young man using the new Xoom tablet to break the monotony of his dystopian work environment. The ad brings to mind Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial introducing the Macintosh personal computer for the first time. The Apple ad shows an athlete running into a sort of brainwashing assembly to smash the overhead screen with a sledgehammer. It was a powerful anti-conformist message that was released in a symbolic year, which George Orwell imagined in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It seems that Motorola was trying to cash in on the success of a truly revolutionary campaign. But the recent commercial falls short in that it is less interesting and less dramatic. And, since the iPad is already in consumers’ hands, the Motorola ad simply demonstrates that Apple is ahead of them on all counts.

Contributed by Katie

Eye candy We have a color calibration tool that arrived in the most complicated packaging I’ve ever encountered. It was a puzzle trying to figure out how to put the various origami-like pieces back together. Perhaps the creators of the frustrating package were trying to mimic the highly designed Apple product boxes. If so, what the Eye-One Display designers failed to realize is that Apple’s containers are not only pleasing to the eye, but they are also easy to open and close. A “less is more” approach would have made the packaging easier to use, and probably more visually appealing. When you lose the functionality of a piece, whether it be a package or a brochure or a website, all the user remembers about the experience is frustration.

Contributed by Katie

Contributed by Domenica

Surprise, surprise No one was more surprised than Chris Spurlock when the resume he posted to Facebook and Twitter went viral. It has been retweeted 5,300 times to date. Chris gives advice to resume writers here. What he doesn’t mention, however, is the key reason why the resume was such an amazing success: he observed one of the fundamental maxims of communication, which is to take a familiar concept and present it in a fresh way. If your audience doesn’t know you exist, try reaching them in an unexpected way. You may be just as surprised as Chris Spurlock by the results.

Contributed by Domenica

Tag, you’re it! Are you keeping up with the latest trend in social media? I came across this ad for the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in a February issue of Newsweek magazine. In the speech bubble above Kennedy is a QR code that, when captured (via photo or QR tag reader), directs your smart phone to the JFK Twitter feed @Kennedy1960. There, you can follow Kennedy’s 1,000 days in office through tweets about what he did each day. It reminds me of the Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring from the movie A Christmas Story. Being in the know makes you feel as if you are part of something exclusive, a movement that not everyone knows about or participates in yet. Institutions can take advantage of this inclusive feeling with QR codes that, for example, send college fair visitors to an exclusive admissions video or website. Just make sure that you don’t disappoint visitors with a “drink more Ovaltine” type message.

Contributed by Jenny

Required reading for aspiring … designers Looking for tips on perfecting the craft of design? Zinsser’s book for writers is filled with advice on creating clean, interesting, smart writing. But everything he says about the written word also applies to the design process. He tackles the big issues—simplicity, clutter, style, audience, usage, and more. Good writing—like good design—is about communicating effectively. This is a handbook for anyone who seeks advice on creating stronger messages, no matter the medium.

Contributed by Domenica

Bragging rights—and wrongs I’ve been flying around the country all my life, and Southwest Airlines used to be the cheap and dirty alternative to the more “respectable” airlines. However, I recently chose Southwest for a flight to Las Vegas because they had the lowest fare and the most convenient travel times. According to Zagat’s 2010 Airline Survey, Southwest ranked number one in Best Consumer On-Time Estimates–Domestic, Website, Check-in Experience, Best Value—Domestic, and Best Luggage Policy—Domestic. It seems they’ve come a long way. But if you visit Southwest’s website, you won’t see an oversized Zagat banner or badge. Their low prices, friendly crew, and satisfying customer experiences speak louder than any boastful link to the rankings.

Contributed by Jenny

I observed this figure outside an airport restroom on a recent trip. The placement of the “W” makes a humorous—if unintended—anatomical addition. It reminded me that we need to check and double-check every detail of our messages to ensure that our readers only see what we want them to see.

Has your audience bailed on you? Don’t fret—Cram Quarterly is here with ideas that will help you cultivate attention.

Cool tools video A stop-animation short featuring tools as undersea creatures.

UCDA Design Summit
March 24-26, 2011

Two Sides of Branding
Brenda Foster and Domenica Genovese are the two very different brains behind Greatest Creative Factor (GCF). Brenda and Domenica take turns talking about the need for a whole-brained approach to brand communications.
Two Sides of Branding; Left Brain Brenda will discuss the logical, rational, analytical, objective, structured side of branding. Topics include how to present an idea, how to win support from your client, how to put out the occasional fire, and why research matters.
Two Sides of Branding; Right Brain Domenica will take on the intuitive, spontaneous, risky, subjective, inventive side of branding. Topics include staying inspired, wrestling alligators, pushing the boundaries, and keeping it simple.

For more information or to register for the Summit please visit.

Squirrel away this link The University & College Designers Association (UCDA) listserve recently buzzed with comments about this Beloit College video featuring talking squirrels. Most were nuts about it, some were not, but everyone had an opinion. More proof that doing something different gets you noticed!

Do you remember the Unilever commercials that ran throughout the last season of Mad Men? The ads were designed to mimic the look and feel of the show in an effort to get people to sit through the commercials instead of hitting the fast-forward button on their remotes. According to a marketing study commissioned by Unilever, the campaign was a big success. Attitude about the Unilever brand improved by 7%, in spite of complaints by a segment of viewers (including me) who felt they were tricked into watching the ads.

I might be less irritated if I had more admiration for the writing and production value of the commercials. After all, they are attempting to look like one of the most gorgeous and well-written shows on TV. I would’ve admired a spoof that captured the real flavor of the original. Instead, I thought the ads looked muddy and uninteresting.

Advertisers—and college communicators—are up against incredible odds as viewers take more control over what they do or don’t watch. You’ll get the best return on your advertising investment if your materials are impeccably crafted. Would Unilever’s success have been even more impressive with a better-crafted campaign?

A New York Times article printed in December caught our attention and sparked quite a debate around the GCF office. A man on trial for murder underwent a transformation before he was due to appear in court. As you can see from the photos above, the defendant sports a swastika tattoo (among others) on his neck and unruly facial hair. But the jury saw a clean cut, well dressed young man with only a bit of a tattoo resembling a cross under his eye.

The article explains how the defense lawyer obtained permission from the judge to have the tattoos covered before trial so they would not affect the jury’s verdict. This idea of changing a person’s appearance caught our interest. As marketers, we are constantly finding ways to influence our audiences so they see what we want them to see. But when does manipulation go too far?

In the comments at the end of the article, some readers argue that the accused man should have his tattoos obscured so they do not distract the jury members from the facts presented in the case. Others pointed out that if he chooses to go through life with his tatts on display, then that’s how he should appear in court.

Replacing a swastika with a religious symbol swings the debate in another direction. Now the defense has gone past neutralizing the defendant’s appearance to misrepresenting his character. A cross conveys quite a different message than a swastika, and motive is often a factor in determining whether a person has committed a crime. If this man is a white supremacist, then he might have motive to kill based on his beliefs.

Perception is reality. In the photo on the left, the defendant is a hardened criminal; in the photo on the right, he is the guy next door. What happens when we leave the courtroom and examine what we say about the classroom? Are we being honest in our portrayal of campus life, facilities, neighborhood, academic rigor and outcomes? Or are we painting a picture that is rosier than reality? No matter how slight the distortion, misrepresenting who we are is never a good idea.