Hot off the Presses

It's sometimes hard to imagine all that goes into a printed publication. From research to concept to content to photography to final design, often it's just a handful of people touching the piece. Then it heads off to the printer for the final step in the process. As Fred often says, it takes hard work and attention to detail to achieve beautiful results in a printed publication. We just delivered a number of printed pieces for the start of the new school year for a few of our educational clients.

Here are some photos our designers took while on press assuring that our clients get the very best results possible. From proofing to the final check on press, careful concentration and precision allow us to achieve those results. 

Take a look below at some of our work on press for Moorestown Friends School, Rowan University, and then check out our latest work for Cabrini College—hot off the presses.

making sure we have the color correct for Moorestown Friends School

lovely Lia with Rowan's admissions publications

Cabrini College Admissions Materials

Kelsh Wilson Design recently refreshed the admissions marketing materials for Cabrini College. We updated text and replaced many of the photos in the pieces, keeping them current. During a full redesign two years ago, we felt that their core messages were still very valid, so we refreshed the content and redesigned the pieces, updating the look and feel. Those materials included an admissions viewbook, a travel piece, a campus map and information for visitors, and an outcomes piece featuring alumni success stories. This year we added a transfer brochure and we’re creating a new search piece. This is a “refresh” of the second full set of materials we have designed for Cabrini. 

Viewbook

Travel Brochure

Outcomes Brochure

Living and Learning Communities Brochure

Transfer Brochure

Visit Map

Online Videos-Our Partnership with Allied Pixel

Online video has become vitally important for recruitment, retention, fundraising and alumni relations. But most schools struggle with two challenges:

• focusing on the right messages for their video projects—stories that will make their videos work as strategic marketing tools, and

• creating an ongoing source of high-quality video content for their website and social channels.

Together with our partner Allied Pixel we provide a package that is both compelling and strategic—getting the messages on point for your institution AND delivering great video content. Allied Pixel is an award-winning studio that, for the past 20 years, has helped colleges and universities tell their story through video, the web and now, social media. Through this partnership we help schools across our region connect with prospective students, current students and alumni through online video. We work with your in-house team to create amazing, short-form videos that inspire sharing.

We base this creative work on an understanding of your marketable strengths and key audiences. And we provide expertise to help leverage the impact of video across your digital platforms—website, Facebook, Twitter and other channels. We’ve pioneered a cost-effective program that provides a full school year’s worth of original, custom-produced video content featuring your students, faculty, alumni and campus. It’s affordable and easy.

Visit Allied Pixel to see how other schools in the area are taking advantage of the program. Then call us at 267.765.0700 x701 to learn more and see if the program is right for your school.

Right now is the perfect time to begin planning for a fall kickoff. This is an exciting, innovative program that can turbo-charge your school’s online presence. 

Creating Compelling Stories with Video

While we always enjoy a well-crafted paragraph or an elegantly designed publication, sometimes the best way to tell your story is through an expertly shot and edited video. Video brings voice and image to the stories that make your institution unique and allows the character of your school to emerge. For prospective students, it allows them to identify with your current students. For your donors, it enables them to witness the impact of their contributions. We love short, compelling, topic-based videos for these purposes, like the ones we developed for the College of William & Mary.

Highlight Your Successes: Outcome Pieces

Your Audiences: Communications Messages for Everyone (a series)

It's April—an active time for communication with your audiences. From yield publications to sophomore search pieces to reunion invitations, it's important to support these initiatives with the right messages and design. We'll highlight a few of these types of publications in a series of posts.

Outcomes Pieces

KWD has worked with several clients to create outcomes pieces—publications that detail alumni successes. Our clients often direct these brochures to accepted students and their parents with the aim of increasing their yield in forming their incoming class. The brochures feature interviews and quotes from alumni—many of them highly successful in their fields. Here is an opportunity to focus on individual stories as a way to illustrate the quality and value of the education and experiences at your institution. Pictured above are some examples of outcomes pieces we have created for clients. In most cases, these publications were part of a larger suite of materials supporting the school's overall admissions strategy. To see a few of these pieces click on the links below:

The College of William & Mary

Cabrini College

SUNY Oneonta

Make a Great First Impression

Your Audiences: Communications Messages for Everyone (#2 in a series)

Search Pieces & Travel Pieces

Search pieces and travel pieces are your opportunity to introduce your school to a new audience—through powerful images, beautiful design, and mission-driven messages. When we work with our educational partners, whether at independent schools or colleges—we start our work by establishing the most compelling messages that resonate with our client’s target audience. We do this through a process of qualitative research—focus groups and interviews—that allows us to speak directly to the people who know your institution the best—students, faculty, staff, and alums. This work is lead by our two senior writing associates, Michael Butler and Kristine Connor.

Getting these messages on target is so important for a publication like a search or travel piece in which you are trying to convey both the things that your institution does well and those that may differentiate you from your competitors in a concise way. Like an advertisement, it needs to leave a lasting impression. There are several approaches to this type of piece. One is to send a simple letter to a vast pool of prospects guiding them to a website to capture their information, the other is to send a more polished piece that conveys your messages to a group of qualified candidates. The first approach is likely to increase inquiries who may or may not convert to suitable applicants. The second approach is likely to generate interest from prospective students who are genuinely curious about your institution.

As we create many of these pieces we find that there is no substitute for striking photography to help you convey your messages. Great photos of your students interacting on campus create a sense of place and atmosphere, allowing your prospective students to envision themselves at your school. (click here to see examples of great KWD photography)

Finally, keeping in mind that the goal of these pieces is to compel prospective students to take action by visiting your website and/or campus, it is important that any follow up interaction carries through on the promise of your messages. From websites and viewbooks to campus visits and tour guides, all of these exchanges are opportunities to convey your school as unique and special. The search piece is the first of these—but fundamentally different from every other part of the communications package, because it’s main goal is to intrigue, not to inform or sell. Like advertising, it’s all about impact and hook. 

Click below for some pieces that we've created for clients:

Moorestown Friends School

SUNY Oneonta

The Perkiomen School

Cabrini College

Cabrini College / Admissions Publications

Viewbook

Outcomes Piece

Travel Piece

Kelsh Wilson Design recently created new Admissions marketing materials for Cabrini College. Because we felt that their core messages were still very valid, we refreshed the content and redesigned the pieces, updating the look and feel. The materials included an admissions viewbook, a travel piece, a campus map and information for visitors, and an outcomes piece featuring alumni success stories. This is the second full set of materials we have designed for Cabrini. 

The College of William & Mary / Outcomes Piece

When the admissions staff at William & Mary decided they wanted to highlight the accomplishments of their alumni—famous, historical, and talented—they turned to KWD as a partner in the project. Senior Writing Consultant, Mike Butler interviewed a broad range of alumni and created a question and answer format that KWD designers used to create an infographic poster. The quoted alumni range from satirist Jon Stewart to William & Mary’s most famous alum, Thomas Jefferson. The poster, which features a black and white photo on the reverse side, was created as a piece to distribute during campus visit days.