Overview
The U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts is always looking for ways it can encourage higher application rates from historically underrepresented communities. When I was hired on to the Student Recruitment team as their Graphic Design and Social Media Strategist, it was my job to research which topics, resources, and communication styles were most important to high school-aged students from marginalized communities, and execute print and digital projects that would motivate these students to apply.
College of LSA Recruitment Brochure
The LSA recruitment brochure was my first assignment in my role as Graphic Design and Social Media Strategist. The student recruitment department's goal in creating this brochure was to highlight key resources the College of LSA provides for students from diverse backgrounds. The main identities the brochure focused on were first-generation students, low-income students, and students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. This project spanned over two months, and the final product was distributed to over 2,000 U-M Campus Day attendees. It will continue to be distributed until the content needs to be updated.
the research
In creating this brochure, I wanted my writing and design to be rooted in the interests of LSA's target audiences. To gain their perspective, I split my research into that of Generation Z as well as the underrepresented minority (URM) identities noted above. Scholarly articles and case studies on Generation Z indicate it is the most technologically eager, truth-seeking, independent, and visual generation yet. As a smaller subset of the Generation Z population, studies done on URM students show that their main concerns surround the depth at which diversity is valued at a university. These students express that they want explicit and public support from their universities, but they also want these educational institutions to follow through on their promises of diversity. They value when diversity is at the core of both the educational and extracurricular activities on campus.
Informed Design
Combining the research I did on Generation Z with the information I found on URM students, I aimed to design a brochure that addressed each reader as an individual while exemplifying the depth of LSA's diversity initiatives through striking visuals. To represent the connectedness and depth of issues of diversity at U-M, each design flows between multiple pages. This creates a more interactive eye path as well as symbolizes the university's synchronized approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). To appeal to Generation Z's attraction to authenticity, I included personal quotes and stories from multiple individuals affiliated with U-M. Personal testimonies anchor the claims the university makes about their commitment to DEI. A final aspect of my design that was informed by my research is the typography on each page. I designed the brochure in such a way that the most important text on each page grabs readers' attention first. I designed them this way to appeal to Gen Z's propensity for visual learning and tendency to ignore blocks of text.
LSA Instagram Strategy
In addition to creating a print brochure, the LSA student recruitment department also wanted to utilize the technological affordances of social media, specifically Instagram, to increase application rates from prospective underrepresented minority students. After the completion of the recruitment brochure, my next project was to create a 3-month long Instagram strategy that would garner URM student attention, participation, and applications.
