"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

Which is why I'm constantly striving to do new things in the world of recruitment and retainment. 

Research showed the presence of Viewbooks did not increase or reduce the amount of applications received. Since Viewbooks tend to be costly to produce the university opted to spend money elsewhere and instead I created a prospect folder. 

I strategically revised the copy in our marketing materials to infuse more emotion, aiming to establish stronger connections with our students. The narrative between the campus and prospective students should inspire and compel them to envision themselves as integral members of our university community. 

I produced Search and Travel pieces for the Office of Admissions, as well as; applications, folders, postcards, and strategized and coordinated deliveries for various other printed materials, emails, videos, and social media content. 

With more and more people using mobile devices to access important material–and opting into what they want to receive–there was a growing demand to give Foundations, IU South Bend's Alumni magazine, an online presence.

Once the campus started migrating sites into a responsive framework I worked with the university's New Media Specialist and created the first-ever Foundations website. 

I provided the strategy behind the site and content which was based on the print issues I also designed. 

Originally tasked with creating a cardboard cutout for a photo booth instead I created an interactive wall display. 

With a minimum budget I worked with on-campus facilities who then built a custom display. The unit allows for interchangeable graphic panels on both sides and a large center panel to use at our discretion depending on the event. 

The display wall made its debut during Student Induction for Class of 2020. 

We had an IU branded backdrop for individual/group photos and each student could "pin" a carnation to our wall as a promise to themselves toward their education and future. 

Photos were also branded for the event and then placed on the university's Facebook page. 

Later the wall was used for Spirit Week and another activity where we could quantify results and share via social.

How do you compete in the era of Apple Watches—when you’re not an Apple Watch? By proving you can have The Time of Your Life with all the functionality you’d ever need while spending about half the cost.

As part of my Master’s in Business Administration I designed the creative for a group project that was aimed at helping increase sales for the Fossil Smartwatch during the November/December holiday shopping season.

We created the slogan, “Time of Your Life.” After market research proved our efforts would be targeting Millennials most likely with children—who would be budget conscious, we aimed to create marketing that was more family-friendly.

Imagery was borrowed and altered, all copy for “original posts” was created by me. The goal was a casual tone that would showcase special moments that could be enjoyed with loved ones or that an individual could easily relate to the holiday season.

Digital campaigns and social media strategy were used. The campaign also included storyboarding for video that ultimately would be edited and placed on multiple channels to create interest and draw people to other videos on YouTube.

Foundations is a bi-annual alumni publication produced in-house by the Office of Communications and Marketing at IU South Bend with a print run of more than 30,000 distributed to all alumni, faculty and staff of the university.

Stories are written by faculty, staff, and the occasional freelance writer. Contracting with outside photographers—and later our own staff photographer—I scheduled, attended, and helped art direct photo shoots to make sure I would get exactly what was needed for the publication. 

This specific issue marked the tenth anniversary of the magazine, as well as the growth of the university during Chancellor Una Mae Reck's 11-year tenure.

The commemorative issue was marked with a silver foil on the cover and a double gate timeline fold in the center of the magazine.

During my time with IU South Bend the entire IU system underwent integrated image initiatives that changed the branding of the university. Logos, or signature marks, were created for each campus as well as athletic spirit marks.

Since the new spirit marks were released I have created everything from pocket schedules, magnets, coach/thank you cards, and posters, to working with vendors to redesign the basketball floor and embroidered shirts.

The basketball floor was painted with a limited Pantone palette for the Titan. Specific color swatches had to be selected and agreed upon to best represent the full color Titan that you traditionally see printed or electronically.

In 2018, I also lead the initiative for the IU South Bend Office of Communications and Marketing to work with IU Communications in Bloomington to once again rebrand our Titan. They aided in helping us create an Athletics Brand Book—the first of it’s kind, to help with consistent branding, messaging, team marks and apparel needs, facility designs, fonts, and more.

It was quite the journey being the designer for e'spire from its inception in 2009 for its inaugural issue.

It started as a 28-page magazine then moved to 68-pages by it's second issue. By 2011 it had grown to 88-pages. To date, it's still the only perfect bound magazine the Office of Communications and Marketing has ever produced. It holds steady at 88 pages only because any thicker it would mail at a higher rate.

Since the beginning my main objective was always to produce a creative magazine for the school. I even took liberties phonetically with how its name would appear on the cover. With the support of Marvin Curtis, the dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, the magazine has continued to be known as e'spire (or Aspire in copy).

Stories and photography was provided by students, faculty and staff. On many occasions for large events an outside photographer was hired.

The magazine showcased stories from all five areas of the arts; Communication Studies, Visual Arts, New Media, Music, and Theatre and Dance. Pages dedicated to spotlight student and faculty work were sprinkled throughout the magazine. The piece acted as the school's primary recruitment tool and included "ad pages" that provided important information about each of those areas.

The 2011 issue received international recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in the Circle of Excellence Awards. The magazine won a bronze award for periodicals in the category for in-house publications.

To gain exposure and recognition during my tenure with IU South Bend I created pieces to raise brand awareness for the campus.

Examples included banners around the exterior of campus, mascot-themed banners in front of the Student Activities Center, interior-campus sidewalk banners, and worked with external vendors to produce flags displayed on light poles in downtown South Bend.

Produced a variety of telescopic banners for schools on campus that are consistent with rebranding initiatives to reinforce additional marketing materials.

Traditional and digital billboards in the surrounding counties for brand awareness to promote the university, the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, enrollment, summer discount, and even an oversized banner promoting the university in the South Bend Regional Airport.

Working with a local vendor I designed a vinyl wrap for a campus events vehicle that would promote student life to increase visibility when it was taken off campus. The objective of the wrap was to raise awareness of athletics on IU South Bend's campus. Each side of the vehicle represents a different athletic program — Men's and Women's Basketball and Women's Volleyball.

Before Foundations and e'spire I worked with the school of business and economics to create their 2009 and 2010 annual review.

The 64-page review was designed to be a unique size to set itself apart from other university publications. I worked directly with Rob Ducoffe, the Dean of the Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics to complete it, and I arranged and attended photo shoots as needed.

The 2009 annual review received an American Graphic Design Award.

I've worked alongside the Office of Development to help create successful fundraising campaigns.

A few campaigns included; the Judd Leighton Foundation Challenge Grant Campaign, a $1 million match for renovation of the Administration Building; the $1.2 million renovation for the Joshi Family Performance Hall; the Dental Education Wing; and a Campus Campaign where faculty and staff are invited to give back to IU South Bend.

Printed pieces vary based on solicitation needs. However, I've produced brochures, booklets, folders, inserts, posters, postcards, thank you cards and pledge cards, and have created holiday sites with fundraising initiatives built-in as well as provided other development website updates.

Invitations for special events are usually where I explored different papers, inks, printing methods and presentation.

A couple examples included the Indulge Your Senses and Chancellor's Medal invite.

The Indulge Your Senses invite I worked with a committee that had a vision for a specific design. I worked mainly with a single contact from the committee and a vendor to achieve a die cut invitation that would fold into itself and hold the RSVP card inside. 

The Director of IU South Bend's Center for a Sustainable Future contacted the Office of Communications and Marketing for a gorilla card campaign. What evolved from that request was a collectible set of fact cards that he would then distribute at lectures and/or events.

I worked directly with the client to help establish the size, and specifically selected artwork that was dynamic and would lend itself well for multiple purposes. The intention was to keep the color scheme simple and alternate the colors, facts and graphics in a way to achieve the feeling of a "collector's" set.

The cards helped ignite networking during many sustainability events due to their presentation of varying facts. Attendees could share facts and in many instances wanted to "collect" them all or trade cards.

Feedback from the director has always been positive and we have added cards in years since the release of the initial print run.

I've also produced digital invites, programs on seed paper and continually look for ways to be more sustainable when selecting papers for printing.

In order to print the FSC recycled content logo on materials the vendor you select will need to be licensed to do so. In many cases I've opted to site the paper and recycled content as a production note instead.

Worked with Director of Public Affairs and Communications Gail Mancini at the IU School of Medicine - South Bend and redesigned their bi-annual newsletter, Commitments, and their annual Medicine Ball Gala event materials for a many years.

I refreshed Commitments with a clean layout using IU approved colors and fonts, and made sure branding was consistent and correct signature marks were used to build brand recognition.

Their annual Medicine Ball Gala is a large-scale formal event to thank their numerous donors. Their gala materials included save the date postcards, invitations, RSVP cards, corresponding envelopes, programs, posters, powerpoint templates and additional pieces as requested.

This page is dedicated to a few of the fun freelance jobs I've had along the way. 

University of Notre Dame Master of Engineering (MEng)
Two years ago I assisted the University of Notre Dame by creating ads for their Master of Engineering. The ads were used in a coordinated paid media campaign. I also provided a comprehensive website analysis of their website and recommendations for improvements.

IU South Bend
Following my previous tenure with Indiana University, I was excited to return to the team at IU South Bend to contribute to the creation of their '21-22 Annual Report. I've provided just a few sample spreads—including a custom infographic—that utilized a refreshed brand colors palette. The objective with this specific publication was to bring energy and excitement through photography and color to showcase the achievements that year.

Indiana Transfer Council Summit (ITC)
Five years ago I was hired to create a more professionally branded program for the ITC Conference in Indianapolis. Since then I've been asked to return to refresh the program, and in 2023 I added a digital component to reduce production costs and aid in digital adoption for those who didn't want a printed program to view it on-the-go.  

The Women's College, Denver University
A large 7' x 22' long photo runway that was a collage of about ninety photos for a gala event celebrating 125 years of the college.

Other projects have included posters, postcards, contribution cards, and templates for email marketing using Constant Contact.

Beacon Health System
Assisted Beacon Health System in South Bend by redesigning multiple fliers and updating other pre-existing files for banners, e-blasts and forms.