It takes a community.
Celebrate 49 years on 49th Ave
In 1970, Vancouver Community College opened its Langara campus and invited the community to make us their first choice for accessible, quality education. Almost five decades later, we celebrated the 49th anniversary with the mark Beyond 49, which includes alumni engagement and fundraising.
Since our doors first opened, Langara has come a long way, has added new buildings, welcomed students worldwide, and proudly watched our students achieve great things.
Objective.
- Strengthen the College brand awareness and build institutional pride.
- Reconnecting with alumni and increasing alumni engagement.
- Raise funds for student scholarships and important college initiatives.
- Increase average gifts/donations.
Role played.
I collaborated with Domain 7 for the overall design direction of the website project for the launch. I was the lead designer for further design requirements, specifically digital advertising, email design, banners, social media materials, digital screens, new landing pages to promote community day, alumni engagement, and fundraising events.
Beyond 49 had three pillars that were the foundation of this celebration: Celebrate, Share and Give. We designed a website as a central point to respond to each. It t allows Langaras (Students, Alumni, Faculty, and Staff) to share their memories and stories and make Langara unique. Maintained a Calendar of events, so all of Vancouver was invited to celebrate Langara’s journey and become one of us. Lastly, we had a section where donations were possible.
Social Media Content
Challenges faced.
Content is an integral part of web design. Unfortunately, our client thought the content was “an addition”. They were late with it, which affected timelines and made us delay testing. In the end, we needed to work overtime. Also, the client realized after launch that they had missed some functionality requests. Fortunately, we could adapt the design to their additional needs and solve the issue.
Results.
We designed a festive and visually appealing site and collateral that engaged the community to celebrate Langara 49th. It also motivated alumni to share their college stories and recollections. Beyond 49 anniversary celebration was a success: The foundation collected 18% more than anticipated and the alumni enrollment increased by 10%
What we learned.
- During the initial design stages, provide the client with character count guides for content.
- Revise with the client best practices for content, metatags, and keywords.
- Motivate clients to understand that a website is a living organism and the business’s front door. In some cases, the first and only contact with the brand.
- Remind the client to plan as many possible updates and additions to the site during the discovery phase.
- Remind the client that a site is an interface that should be used, measured and continually improved.