Print Publications & Alumni Magazines

Print publications exist amongst a variety of channels and challenges, although they are often the unsung pièce de résistance that closes the deal for donors, subscribers, prospective students, or event attendees. As a former Director of Marketing, I have been responsible for more than my fair share of paper publications – recycled, of course! You can see samples of my work below.

What is hardest to describe is how I worked through challenges or served the best interests of my employer or client with print publications. For example:

• Designing a holiday card for Advancement that captured a bi-coastal campus.
• Creating hard copy materials for other departments, and working with them from the conceptual stage all the way through printing and distribution.
• Designing Admissions and Alumni Relations materials that accurately represented the organic, group-oriented nature of the college.
• Ensuring our materials represent an accurate picture of diversity in our programs, as well as making sure anyone would feel welcome based on the language and imagery.
• Discovering storerooms full of older alumni publications, posters, and folders and finding creative ways to incorporate them into Admissions packets, enlist student and staff help in distributing them nationally, and ensuring the archives had copies.
• Deploying a “Hometown Hero” strategy which included newspaper, radio, and bus ads, as well as local and print media relations.
• Overseeing a rebrand that entailed overhauling every print publication on campus. This also meant identifying some weak processes around campus signage and things like letterhead and business cards, which our department ultimately took on in order to ensure the high quality of our new brand materials.

While I consider myself a digital marketer, I’m also “channel agnostic,” meaning I am not attached to the channel or media that helps you achieve your goal. And in many cases, print publications do the trick.