Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Burnishing an iconic brand to increase stature, recruitment, and contributed income
Sarah Lawrence College, since it welcomed its first class in 1928, has often been ahead of the curve—or engaged in shaping a new one. Launched with a vision and pedagogy that were at once both time-tested and startlingly new, Sarah Lawrence, through its approach to education, devoted faculty, talented students, and accomplishments of its alumnae/i, built up an enviable and differentiated reputation and brand.
But a shining past didn’t guarantee a shining future, and the College’s leaders were aware that the Sarah Lawrence brand had lost some luster. The College became associated with attributes it didn’t want to define it—and less known for the academically rigorous, student-centric, and interdisciplinary approach that really define a Sarah Lawrence education.
Within a very compressed timeframe, we were charged with evolving the College’s brand strategy, messaging, and visual expression—and then marshaling this thinking to plan, write, design, and produce:
- a new suite of admissions materials;
- an annual fund campaign,
- materials to launch the College’s first capital campaign—print and web; and
- a comprehensive new website.
Results were almost immediate: applications and yield were up after one year—and continued to improve over the next two years of our participation. Significant gifts propelled the new campaign.
Objectives
- Restore some lost luster to reposition the College as a first choice and good “fit” for desired candidates
- Position the College to be both within its respected peer group and also distinctive
- Dispel misperceptions about the College
- Expand the College’s geographic reach
- Build pride in “self-sufficient” alumnae/i as a prerequisite for increasing annual giving
- Address some missteps by both enrollment and advancement
- Communicate Sarah Lawrence’s unique pedagogy, its student-driven approach to building creative and critical skills, and the value of a liberal arts education
- Launch the College’s first capital campaign
Collaboration
- Distilled, through more than 100 faculty, student, staff, and alumnae/i interviews, what is distinctive and valuable about a Sarah Lawrence education
- Developed messages that communicated its unique pedagogy and its relevance today
- Identified “ways in” for alumnae/i support, which then informed new approaches to annual giving and a capital campaign
- Crafted a visual system that reinforces the College’s position as a hotbed of creative expression
- Created distinctive print and digital recruitment communications
- Collaborated to devise strategy and print and digital materials for the College’s first capital campaign
- Documented the new brand and provided training so that in-house staff would have the tools and thinking to keep the evolved brand healthy
- Executed all of the above within a highly compressed timeframe
Scope
- Extensive qualitative research
- Internal / competitive communication audits
- Brand strategy / architecture
- Attributes, storylines, messaging
- Visual system
- Copywriting
- Print collateral
- User experience, web design, and development
- Annual fund strategy and communications
- Capital campaign strategy and materials
- System documentation and training
The best preparation for whatever comes next: a new suite of admissions materials
Sarah Lawrence’s unique “Oxbridge” pedagogy, four-year “donning,” and signature, independent “conference projects” had been shown over decades to have great value—and to prepare students for exciting, successful careers and lives—but they were not well understood. Through new messaging, photography, design—and innovative approaches to methods and materials—we created an integrated suite of print and digital materials that increased both applications and matriculation.
This brochure-poster presents the College’s main value propositions in the context of strong “I can see myself here” imagery. Pairing large images with color blocks that bring forward the main storylines—the compelling reasons to consider Sarah Lawrence—this book engages prospective students and their parents.
With its exposed, colorful sewn binding—and fortune-cookie-scale messages in the gutters of all spreads—the viewbook intrigues readers, and lives the College’s brand. It reinforces Sarah Lawrence’s position within its peer group while also underscoring the school’s historic reputation for intellectual rigor paired with creativity. It is now in its fifth iteration.
These materials reinforce the messages and visual engagement first experienced through a prospecting postcard series, the motivational brochure—and on through the poster and viewbook—to encourage those who were admitted to matriculate.
The challenges were significant. Sametz Blackstone worked seamlessly with dozens of campus groups, including senior leadership, to build trust and the necessary collaborative relationships.They interviewed hundreds of alumni and conducted multiple focus groups with students, staff, and faculty. Our new branding initiative was a success largely due to their efforts—their ability to listen, synthesize, create, and manage.”
Lyn Chamberlin
Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Sarah Lawrence College (former)
The College’s new website brought the underpinnings of a Sarah Lawrence education—and the experience of being on campus—forward, helping prospects to “see myself here."
Flip, funky, and friendly, this piece builds community and radiated a welcoming, inclusive vibe.
Visual expression is messaging: a distinctive, flexible visual system
A new marketing mark (with a range of variants)—combined with bespoke approaches to type, color, imagery, and gesture—continues to give all Sarah Lawrence communications needed consistency, while also providing the flexibility to create materials that make the most of every opportunity. A brand book lays out the whats, whys, and hows, of the system.
Bolstering fundraising: capital, and annual fund campaigns
Historically, Sarah Lawrence had balanced the books through substantial tuition revenue, but the desire to provide more scholarship funds, attend to deferred campus maintenance, invest more deeply in faculty—and the pressing need for a new student center—all augured for a capital campaign. We worked with leadership to strategize, write, and design both print and digital materials to advance this effort.
The College’s first capital campaign—Ahead of the Curve—reminded prospective donors of the school’s luminous history while setting fundraising priorities that were in sync with resonant storylines. The campaign’s graphic identifier provided gravitas for the campaign and connected to the new system of marketing identifiers. The case statement both instilled pride in alumnae/i and advanced a key brand premise: the College had historically been “ahead of the curve”—and would be again with the raised funds. Section chapters made the case for each campaign priority.
To give the new campaign prominence, and to provide a tool for staff and volunteer fundraisers, we planned, wrote, and developed a campaign microsite that tracks the case book and brings forward different stakeholders who introduce each area of the campaign.
In tandem, we asked the Sametz team to re-conceive and redesign our website—and to write, design, and produce materials for both recruiting and our capital campaign, including a comprehensive case statement. Any one assignment alone would have been formidable, but taken together—a top-to-bottom rebranding of the institution while executing all of its parts—was a herculean set of tasks. We got it all done—and we got results.”
Lyn Chamberlin
The first annual fund campaign in the new brand paired 1970s imagery with Sarah Lawrence today. The goal: remind alumnae/i of the school’s innovative, socially conscious, creative heritage—a heritage they were very much a part of.
In the first year of the capital campaign, the College raised enough money to begin construction on the now-finished student center.
