College Letter Design: Part One

I wonder how much combined money colleges put into their "come to school at our college, please" letters that they send out to high school students.  It's got to be a lot.  I've noticed that some letters are very well designed and provide me with some great graphic design inspiration, and others, well...let's just say that graphic design wasn't the college officials' first priority as they considered how to design their letters.  I'm going to write a few posts about college letters, highlighting some of the best designed examples and why I like them.  I might also give a few ideas on how they could've been even better.  Each post will contain thoughts on the letters of two colleges.

I want to make sure you understand, though, that my opinions are just opinions.  I think it's fun to look at design and write out what I like and don't like about it, so that's what I'm going to do in these posts.  What i have to say about these designs isn't the law and you should feel free to disagree with me.  Since that's out of the way, let's begin with...

Allegheny College
The outside of the fold-up brochure produced by this college is stunning.  It really grabs your attention and makes you want to read the rest.  Take a look for yourself.

The way the word "weird" stands out so well instantly makes you want to find out what exactly is weird.  I love the composition and contrast on the cover of this brochure.  The theme that starts on the cover continues through the inside of the brochure.

Again, the contrast on this piece is very good, as is the use of white space (which doesn't have to necessarily be white - it can be any color as long as it's blank space).  I would like to have seen the small text at the bottom be a little less squished, though.  The design might have been stronger if the circle and the blue band were moved up to give the small text more room, and to follow the rule of thirds better.

I like the font choices in this, and I think the contrast with each other well.  The use of color is good in that it promotes contrast.  I feel like it's missing some "pop," however - perhaps another color would have made the design come alive a little more.  That's just a pondering, though, and I think the use of color is very good overall.

Honestly, I kind of wish the circle choose-your-combination graphic on the side would've been much, much more interesting if it was interactive and you could actually spin the center of it as opposed to it just being a flat, printed design.  I can understand that an interactive brochure would've been a whole lot more expensive, though, so that decision makes sense.

Manhattanville College

A three-dimensional looking puzzle piece is an innovative idea for the cover of a college brochure, and yet I feel like the cover design of this brochure is a little "blah." 

The colors seem a little dull and not as interesting as they could me...at least in my opinion.  The inside of the brochure is a totally different story, though.  I absolutely love the design of the inside.  Here's one page of what you see when you open up the brochure.

In contrast to the boring, old-school cover, this first page is young, fun, and colorful.  The font choice is simple yet cool, and the bright colors are great.  I also think the use of questions in the text is a good move on the part of the college - questions entice the viewer to read the small print.  The other pages of the brochure follow the same design style, but they don't all match exactly so far as the layout goes.  Here's one of them.

I like the small photos with the white borders to make them stand out.  It's different from the large photo on the first page, and provides a nice variation.  Another page in the brochure is the list of majors.  I'm impressed with the innovative way the designer chose to display this information.

The yellow rounded rectangles against the blue are a great, interesting way to present the facts.  As opposed to the classic, boring alphabetical list, this page is creative and fun to look at.

One thing that I like less about the design for this brochure though, is the lack of white space.  I feel like every part of the brochure is filled with information or pictures.  Even though that shows that the designer really economized on space, I think the brochure would be easier to view if there were more blank spaces.

That's all for this post, but check back soon for part two!