How Do You Stop Thinking Inside the Box?
Learn outside the lines.
Allegheny College isn’t like many other schools. For over 100 years their model of education has prepared students for more than just jobs. It emphasizes worldliness, and intelligence – the ability to think creatively and critically, instead of just memorizing the right answers. Strange as it sounds, this is pretty unique in higher ed. The trouble is, higher ed marketing isn’t known for its uniqueness. Allegheny needed a brand that could live up to its own example – something brainy and clever and well outside the expected. Challenge: accepted.
Attitude. Not Platitudes.
Most of the time, higher ed branding is a thousand shades of beige – kids smiling in an oak-lined quadrangle under blandly aspirational headlines about the future. Sound familiar? We didn’t want to do that. So we started with a voice for Allegheny to cut through the nonsense and capture who they are: Smart. Challenging. Not afraid to demand more from a student, and to expect a student demand more from them. Learn Outside the Lines both gave voice to Allegheny’s unexpected educational model, and served as a finger in the chest – urging would be freshmen to break from the norm, and expect something greater from higher education.
A Blue and Goldmine.
When it comes to branding a college, nothing’s more important than the Viewbook. Not only is it the main source of information for an incoming student – it’s also the wellspring for all the work that flows from it. To make it, we spent a year immersing ourselves in all things Allegheny. We went to class, met with staff and faculty, and interviewed dozens of current and former students to uncover everything we could about life on campus and in class.
Illustrating the Point.
COVID made shooting a traditional video campaign impossible. Fortunately for us, traditional wasn’t what we were aiming for anyway. We wanted our spots to look, sound, and feel like a mind at action – buzzing with inspiration and ideas. So we pulled in an international team of animators to help bring it all to life. Check them out. No smiling kids sitting under trees. No bland aphorisms or anthems. Just clever metaphors, beautiful art, and smart copy.