Campus Rec Style Guides - Case Study
When the Bronco Recreation and Intramural Complex (BRIC) opened at Cal Poly Pomona in 2014, it more than doubled the marketing workload for Associated Students Inc., Cal Poly Pomona (ASICPP). ASICPP is made up of many departments offering a wide range of programming and services to students of Cal Poly Pomona. Campus Recreation, the ASICPP department that runs the BRIC, also emanated from this opening.
There were four programmatic areas of focus within Campus Recreation in 2014: Adventures, Aquatics, Fitness, and Intramurals. Since then, it has grown to include Sport Clubs, Scuba, and Youth Programs. Out of necessity, the Marketing, Design, and Public Relations (MDPR) department developed and implemented style guides to manage the workflow, and they’ve been evolving ever since.
When we first introduced style guides, we treated the four Campus Rec programs separately. Each program got its own style guide, which we developed independently from the others. See examples below.
Over time, we identified issues with this method. Not only was it difficult to maintain four unique styles in addition to all the other programmatic and departmental needs, but it was also very time consuming to develop.
In 2017, I worked closely with Campus Recreation to merge all programs under one unified style guide. We identified three areas that needed to be addressed: we needed to be able to categorize the importance of a project, have a clear idea of the design time for each project, and define the visual voice of Campus Recreation. Knowing this, my team and I created the Peg and Box systems, a modular grid and information system allowing for versatile placement of any copy and images.
Photo Credit: Andrew Phan
The categorization of a project became very important and was directly connected to the need-to-know design time. One of the recurring issues we faced in my department was the time it took to complete some marketing when the program could only facilitate a very limited number of participants. On more than one occasion, we were asked to produce fully illustrated posters for programs that only had seats for a dozen people, and many times, by the time the marketing was completed, seats had already filled up.
Project categorization led us to develop a scale chart based on the number of participants. Small-scale projects were 1–14 participants, medium-scale projects were 15–99 participants, and large-scale projects were any event or program that could accommodate 100+ participants.
Our answer to the concern of time was thus also addressed by the scale chart. Small-scale projects would only require a short amount of time (a few hours when communication was on-point) while large-scale projects could take weeks.
The visual voice had really been developing since we started style guides back in 2014. We found that photography and clean typography were answer to what the design should be, and we applied these to the small and medium-scale styles. This, however, left illustration out of the question.
Illustration had long been a go-to for our Adventures program and was greatly valued throughout Campus Recreation. It had also been one of the causes for the scale system because it required so much time to create.
Due to the nature of large-scale events and their infrequency, we deemed it appropriate to break away from the systems of the style guide. This allowed the designers and the programmers more freedom and for illustration to still be an option!
We worked to differentiate the look of small- and medium-scale while keeping certain elements consistent, namely the Peg grid and the Box system. A set of curated fonts were also selected by my design team that could be used with both scales.
Photo Credit: Alex Estrada
After completing our first semester’s worth of marketing with this new style guide, my team and I prepared a pitch to bring illustration back to the BRIC in a fun and engaging manner. We called them Hype Posters.
Our goal with these posters was not to just bring illustration back. In fact, our primary objective was to take the photography and clean typography of the new style guide and build out a visual counterweight with strong illustrations. Our secondary objective was to target specific events and programs to build hype around them.
The pitch was rejected by Campus Recreation. Reflecting on it now, I believe we hadn’t given ourselves enough time to experience the new style guide. Additionally, I learned shortly after it was rejected that our design goals and the goals of Campus Recreation weren’t fully aligned. While it was disappointing to not be moving forward with hype posters, after I’d gotten a better understanding of where Campus Recreation’s goals were, it made sense to hold off for the time.
This whole process has continually been an experiment in branding and storytelling. With each new iteration of the style guide we’ve refined, honed in on, and better understood what story we’re really telling with Campus Recreation. With the recent rebrand of the organization (more on that here) I’m looking forward to taking what we’ve started with Campus Recreation and expanding it to include the whole brand of ASICPP!
Artwork and photography © 2021 Associated Students Inc., Cal Poly Pomona