UT Thanks Day is an annual celebration, hosted by the Donor Relations Team, honoring donors who create opportunities for UT students. The goal is to encourage as many students as possible to come out to help say, "Thank you" to the UT donors as part of stewarding their gifts. This attitude of gratitude helps with donor retention.
The original look included the campus tower, which has served as the school's most distinguishing landmark for years. The client liked design, but wished to "humanize" it. Not quite, human, but successful nonetheless...
We first updated it with a bolder color palette to make it pop. We then brought in the school mascot as the primary design element. Students and alumni particularly have a strong affinity for a school's mascot, which is often the most visible figure on a college campus and typically unchanging, so the brand has staying power.
We developed a number of event pieces to really brighten up Gregory Plaza—and other locations—and attract students passing by. Banners, stickers, notecards, and volunteer t-shirts really made the stations stand out. We also provided staff volunteers with field guides and other pieces to help them instruct students on what to say, how to address donors, commonly misspelled words, etc.
We created two videos for this event, working with staff on tone and art direction, types of questions to ask, etc. A local videographer shot the interviews, while post-production was done by Wessel Creative.
The first video was a short promotional spot to encourage students to come out to the event and participate. This was a fast-paced video to create a sense of excitement for the event. It featured several students highlighting what donors have done for students and providing details of the event.
The second video was a 90-second impact video that featured many of the same students, but this time was intended for donors. The president opens with the importance of donor gifts, while the students discuss the specific things they were able to accomplish because of donor gifts.
Tyler enthusiastically stepped into a role where our new team needed fresh creativity, even when we weren’t sure where to start. My work with Tyler during UT Thanks Day led to three CASE awards.
It was a true privilege to collaborate with Tyler. He’s incredibly professional, thoughtful, and very easy to work with. Without his design and communications talent, attention to detail, quick turnaround, and ability to work well remotely, this campus-wide campaign would not have been so successful. Grateful for Tyler and all he does for us—I could not recommend him more!
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