College Letter Design: Part Two

Today, I've got two more college letters for you to look at.  First up is...

St. John's College
Even though the letter itself was a little stereotypical, I had to include this one in my survey of college letter design because of the amazing, stunning, fabulous envelope.  Look at this.

First of all, the headline is great.  It makes you want to read and see what teachers are returning, and also find out why in the world they'd publish that on an envelope.  Then, when you read the names of famous literary figures, you understand the reasoning behind the headline.

So far as the actual design goes, I think the orange color is right on - just the perfect shade.  The typography is also well chosen, and has a literary air to it.  The whole design is very refined, like a nice, hardback edition of a book.  Even though the design is simple, it's memorable.  Also, the envelope was printed on heavy watercolor-like paper which made it all the better.

Eckerd College
This is a very fun, well-designed brochure through and through.  I really like the colors and the font choices, as well as the format - it folds out like an accordion.  Here's the cover.

That shade of blue is one of my favorite colors, so that's a plus right off the bat.  I also love the use of white space on the cover, and the fonts and the way the type is organized (with the "3" the height of two lines of text).  The inside matches so well with the cover, and is equally excellent.  This is what you see when you open it up.

The color and typography continue from the outside, and even with more text in use, the designer doesn't abandon the importance of white space.  It's wonderful.  As you fold out the brochure, you see panels like this.

I really like the use of white text on photos in both of these panels, and white space is proving to be the strongest feature of the design.  I also really like the variation in type sizes.  It makes the design more interesting while still retaining a simplistic (but not minimalistic) appearance.  The list of majors is next up, and it's also quite good.

Even though there's a lot of text going on here, the margins are wide enough, and the map helps to break it up and keep it easy to read, yet visually appealing. 

I honestly can't think of anything I don't like about this design.  I think it's right on.  What I love about it is that it balances the need to be young and fun to appeal to high school students with the need to appear professional and grown up (since it is a college letter after all).

There's one more post coming up, so stay tuned!