The Communication Design Department, equipped with five concentrations and dedicated lab spaces, is as comprehensive as a standalone art school. Our program is designed to maintain its relevance, ensuring our students are well-prepared to face the challenges of the professional world.
Nonetheless, being a commuter school, communication poses a challenge as students tend to leave promptly after class. Moreover, the constant exposure to information through screens and posters can desensitize our students to important advisement, registration, industry events, and opportunities.
To address this, in 2017, I initiated a department-wide communication effort with the creative collaboration of many colleagues. This endeavor began with a campaign to announce the renaming of our department to COMD (Communication Design) from its former name, AD/GA. The campaign featured photographs I took of students in our studio in the Voorhees Building. A colleague designed life-size posters of students announcing the new program name. It was supplemented by additional information on COMD computers across the four buildings where our classes are held. Here are some images from the campaign:
above: one of the fifteen head-to-toe images from the COMD Renaming campaign on the 11th floor. The models are students from the Faculty Commons design team.
The screen saver idea was very effective. I wrote the copy while my colleagues designed the graphics and the CLTs deployed them to the computers on a regular basis:
I designed our late registration availability page, used by the Welcome Center; the text was used by our current Comms Director for our social media pages:
When the department moved to The Pearl, I wrote the copy and one of my colleagues designed the panes. Here’s one of them:
Since then, my colleagues have developed our communications system into a page on the OpenLab site, complete with program information, 1-click registration to our cohorts, and an Internship coordination site. Now, I write copy for our social media posts and announcement entries.
