The Dal Bookstore
My life at Dal began in the Bookstore, predominantly as a graphic designer and merchandiser. I made sale signage, event posters and merchandised the whole clothing area based on my experience working at Selfridges and H&M in Manchester, U.K.
I was soon working on marketing projects. I helped to design, launch and constantly maintain their Facebook page growing our followers by using a tactical in-store promotions. I maintained a portion of the Bookstore website and sent promotional emails to customers. I developed small promotional campaigns to help sell merchandise. I even got to design merchandise; tshirts and mugs we sold in store! I utilized my photography skills to get photos of merchandise for marketing promotions, sometimes recruiting our student workers as models for mini photoshoots.
I was also assigned the role of a custom order clerk; ordering custom logo merchandise for student societies and departments at Dalhousie. I would take care of vector artwork, meticulously place orders with spreadsheets, track orders all the way to handing finished merchandise to the customer. I designed flyers and price lists to make the ordering process easier and more accurate. This helped increase custom order revenue by $40,000 in 2009.
Student Affairs
Later I moved to a design job in the office of the Vice President of Student Affairs. My role quickly snowballed from making infographics and polishing presentations for the VP of Student Affairs, to designing marketing collateral for a whole host of student events, services and programming that didn’t have any (or very little) promotion.
I designed posters, postcards, brochures, rack cards, signage, decals, zip banners, table tents, lawn signs, digital screens, social images, email and web ads — all kinds of printed and digital marketing materials that would help target our various student audiences.
Naturally I began to help with communications. I would update various social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram, scheduling content in Hootsuite. I helped to design, edit and send biweekly e-newsletters using online systems like SimplyCast and MailChimp. I wrote copy for ads and marketing materials, which was edited by my writer colleague.
With the demand and volume of the work, our team of two became six, plus a growing student team who helped to create student driven content. Student Affairs Communications was a small but mighty office.
Our team eventually realized the need for our own brand; one that was separate from the larger institutional brand of Dalhousie. One that current students could relate to and listen to. The voice had to be genuine, peer-to-peer. With the blessing and help of Dal’s central Communications & Marketing department, we developed Dal Student Life.
Dal Student Life
Our team saw a unique opportunity to develop a brand that could communicate to our current students through. This became Dal Student Life. Our mantra was:
By students.
For students.
For students.
We utilized our student team; the Dal Student Life Street Team, to create and develop student content; blog posts, videos, photography, social media posts. This content would be integrated with info about student support services, programs and events. We even hired and trained a student to help create social graphics for smaller events using Adobe Spark.
I supported and managed a team of 6 students to create photo, video and social content. I would touch base with my team in weekly emails or meetings, and used shareable Excel spreadsheets to distribute photography and video work. If we needed photos or video to support a blog post, or to cover an event, or if we needed certain stock images, or head shots of staff; I would make sure our team was there.
Photos were stored in central Flickr account, which I developed in 2013 as a means to handle and share our growing photo bank. I trained our student team on how to utilize tagging features and best practises on how to upload content.
The content created was used by our social and blog team, but it was also an indispensable resource for me to pull from for my design work. It gave our work a whole new and authentic voice.
The Student Success Guide started it’s humble beginning as a booklet directory of all the services, programs and resources available to students. In a time before apps and online content was harder to find, a printed booklet was a good solution. We targeted students in their first-year when they would need help the most and to serve as a guide for them get the most out of the services and support available.
Eventually it became a full-on Undergrad Guide; complete with checklists, goal setting pages, tips, a campus map, as well as the usual directory of student support. They became an indispensable resource for students and staff alike, often being used in academic support sessions.
The Dalhousie IMPACT Awards
The Dalhousie Student Impact Awards is an annual event that celebrates student leaders outside the classroom. I had a big role in helping to launch, market and promote the event, and even design and produce the original framed “pennant” award.
The event first launched in 2011 by a collaboration between the Dal Student Union and Student Affairs. We had a matter of 3 months to pull off it off. Sitting on the IMPACT Award Committee, I lead the charge in promoting the nominations period and the event. I used every channel available to promote it; our website, online ads, print ads in the school newspaper (the Gazette), e-newsletters, digital screens, posters, handbills, website, and social media. I also leveraged help from our central Communications team and Faculty communications officers, who also promoted the event through their own channels.
The event was a red carpet, black tie affair with a free sponsored 3-course meal for every student attending. I designed seating plans, directional signage, and a glossy booklet of award winners. It was always maxed out and extremely successful. It gave the students a feeling of recognition and accomplishment they deserved. It was one of my favourite annual events. It was always very inspirational and I was lucky to be involved right from the beginning.
Website design and maintenance before, during and after the event fell into my IMPACT award responsibilities.
The Award itself needed to be a unique and interesting piece that students would find useful. During my time working at the Dal Bookstore, I found pennants were always popular, so I designed a custom ordered pennant which we framed with a custom plaque for each award winner.
The final design featured Dal's iconic "Henry Hick's" building; a symbolic Dal building that everyone recognized. I wanted the design to have a vintage feel, so I used old Dal yearbooks for inspiration.
The event was a cross between "Oscars meets Dal", so our promotional materials was very Dal branded, with a spotlight to add a little swank. This theme was carried across all promotional materials and materials at the event.
I sourced the pennants, frames and plaques through the Dal Bookstore. Every year, we would utilize our Student Street Team in a "framing" pizza party when pennant frames would be assembled for the awards ceremony..
The program was a 40 page black & white booklet which featured a list of winners, awards and why they won.
