Northwestern University viewbook

Office of Undergraduate Admission, Northwestern University

Editor, writer, and project manager, 1993–2012

During my tenure at Northwestern I was responsible for overseeing the creation and production of the University’s main recruitment publications. During that time, as technology improved and the university refined its mission and messaging, these publications evolved significantly, culminating with the latest redesign of the viewbook, introduced in 2009.

As Northwestern’s main, most comprehensive undergraduate recruitment publication, the viewbook aims to fairly portray life and learning at Northwestern to prospective students and their parents. Therefore, it was essential that all aspects of the package — writing, photography, design, printing — reflect the high quality of the University. The viewbook communicates the breadth and variety of life and learning at an encyclopedic university, and many of our choices support that goal, from the cover concept to the density of information throughout, and the stories, pictures, and words of students and faculty are the heart of the book. We wanted readers to feel an emotional connection with the people they encountered in the viewbook, and the use of color throughout and the choice of uncoated paper underline the warmth and approachability of the community. The combination of that paper and state-of-the-art UV printing techniques resulted in the greenest viewbook yet produced by Northwestern — a quality important to prospective students.

In the year after this latest iteration of the viewbook was published, the university saw an increase of more than 15 percent in early decision applications, along with an increase in minority applications. Overall, applications to Northwestern increased by 9 percent. The Office of Undergraduate Admission reported the viewbook cover made an impression on applicants to the extent that several mentioned it in their application essays. The initial print run of 95,000 was exhausted much sooner than expected and a reprint was ordered just three months after initial delivery.

In addition to the viewbook, I supervised the production of financial aid brochures, applications, information sheets, maps, web content, and other materials.

 

Open Minds

Office of Undergraduate Admission, Northwestern University
Editor, writer, and project manager, 2008–2012

In the summer of 2008 the Office of Undergraduate Admission asked our team to create a brochure that would accompany a major effort to increase enrollment of underrepresented students. The result was Open Minds, a publication that extended the viewbook’s emphasis on students’ voices and experiences to this targeted audience and emphasized diversity as a core value at Northwestern.