Capture prospects through good design: interview with Bo Uzzle
by Sherry Wade, Stein | December 1st, 2008
While much of a designer’s work is abstract, emotional, and gut-level, our designers value research, collaboration, and feedback, considering it all part of the creative process. This ability to learn from the client and the target audience and to incorporate the findings into a final design is particularly true of Stein Art Director Bo Uzzle. Bo has been designing for the education market for years, and he makes an excellent case for design to flow logically and responsibly from research. We coerced him into sitting down for a short interview …
Q. If a school has conducted a lot of market research, can you use it?
A. Of course. I don’t think a responsible designer has the option to ignore research. I don’t hear the name of a university and think colors. That’s not the way it works for me.
We do a lot of research, looking at the target students’ aspirations and an institution’s aspirations and at how these interface — where they meet. That’s important: to look at where a school wants to be, not just at where it is.
In focus groups, we try to get the flavor of a school. We look at the play between being liberal arts versus a comprehensive university. Is the school carried by a few programs? What associations do people off campus have with the school? What draws individual kids to a school? How many are full-pay or first-generation? Who is the decision maker in the prospective student families — the student or the parent?
There are commonalities for every institution. For instance, people want to see the campus, to see where they are going to live for the next four years. We are selling lifestyle as much as academic distinctives.
If a college has lots of first-generation students and it seems that they are drawn to the idea of “college,” then I’ll consider using design elements that are iconic of college.
Are the majority of the prospective students “careerists” or people who want to learn how to learn? If they are mostly careerists, you don’t want to frustrate that desire with a lot of abstract language.
Some institutions attract kids who are readers, and that makes you want to give them opportunities for moments of discovery. I love being able to plant Easter eggs for curious people. This requires working closely with a writer. The content has to be structured in a way so that when a reader digs deeper, they are rewarded for their effort. I also love the boldness of the direct, benefits-oriented appeal to careerists.
Designers have to read the content in order to be successful. I think they have to like to read, in order to keep from frustrating readers. A rudimentary understanding of writing is necessary for functional layout.
Q. Can you describe the “design process” a little more?
A. The writer and I work together, doing the research and talking in broad strokes about what makes this school different. What motivates the students there?
For Woodberry Forest, we developed the themes of brotherhood and standing together in an extensive branding document. We thought that talking about brotherhood was best done as a long, direct speech with a rhythm to it — almost sermonizing.
Then we needed to figure out the viewbook sections. How do you back up that appeal? Your typical sections are academics, athletics, outcomes, etc., but for this brotherhood theme, you want something more conceptual: What it means to be a Woodberry man, to join this line, this history.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with the typical sections. Most kids won’t read a viewbook linearly. They’ll thumb through it from back to front. They want to see that list of majors. You’ve got to give them that payoff. But I like to put it at the end because the center spread is one of your best chances to create a lasting dominant impression with a reader. It should connect emotionally. My least favorite viewbooks are ones that are collections of lists.
Once we have the outline, we decide where we want to create interest with details and where we want to be broad, to hit people over the head. Is there a structural logic we want to impose? That starts to flesh out the outline.
The writer writes the broader strokes — what each page will be about. Together we decide — do I need to detail it — is there a story that needs to be told? Or do I need to scream it? We work from broad to the minute and then back up again.
Q. You direct the photo shoots for your projects. What makes a good photographer?
A. We are looking less and less for the photographers who can make the perfect studio shot. We look for people who can give energy, believability.
Kids are incredibly cynical nowadays. They react negatively to anything they don’t believe is sincere.
The good photographers make people feel comfortable, either not aware the camera is there or looking at the camera like you are one of their friends, like you’ve just walked up and joined the conversation. Two camera-aware shots can be technically the same but have a totally different feeling. I do try to limit the number of camera-aware shots. They are so tricky. If you don’t get it right, kids will crucify you for it.
There are other considerations. Many images in a piece will be small images. You want them to give a graphic idea, not details. Let large images celebrate the details.
We’ve all seen viewbooks with the cliched cover shot of a student sitting alone under a tree reading a book. We’re often tempted to think the contemplative life — the life of scholarly reflection — is the ideal collegiate experience. But that’s not necessarily going to connect with a 17-year-old. Social networking has changed the ideal. Kids nowadays don’t want to be alone. You have to show students interacting in groups.
Deserted beauty shots of facilities are a no-no. True, they’re easier to get than shots of kids interacting in the same setting, but you have to understand that the shot of the facility relates a feature, and the interaction shot portrays a benefit. And that’s a powerful difference.
We need to be aware of the stories we’re telling with our images. The story that an image tells to someone not familiar with the school is frequently completely different from the story it tells to us and the school administrators.
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Every school has a different story to tell. Often for my job, the starting point is finding a reason to fall in love with the school. If I can convey that reason to someone else, then I deserve my paycheck.
