UCA Creative Update Alumni Magazine
UCA is one of our oldest clients and one of our favourites because it’s our alma mater. We’ve supported UCA on its journey from 5 individual colleges to the foremost arts-based university in the region. We started with focussing on alumni; their current newsletter was based on the style of one of the colleges, running the risk of turning off graduates from the other four founding colleges. It also had a corporate feel, similar to other pieces of literature distributed by UCA. We knew we had to make an alumni magazine engaging, readable and credible. So we designed a biannual print magazine, “Creative Update”, which had the form and voice of industry news and treated the alumni as grownups. Creative Update was grouped into readable themes such as news, features, and advice which guided the reader through the entire magazine rather than allowing them to just to jump straight in to their own discipline.
With an audience hyperaware of creative sensibilities, we knew that our own creativity would be critiqued so we had to get it right. Using an artistic approach, we used provocative or ambiguous photography for an eye- and soul-catching cover; we created different layouts and spreads for each page and each issue to keep it fresh but used a simple colour scheme and regular fonts to give a sense unity throughout. In 2011 Creative Update won the “Best External Magazine or Newspaper” category at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ 2011 awards. Because of our success, UCA have entrusted us with the re-design of emailer Ezines; and we’ve also redesigned its Annual Review. We had fun with this – loaded with engaging images, colour coding and a bright, attractive font, we created a zing that UCA loved.
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