UM-Flint University Relations

I recently attended the PantoneView Colour Planner Fall/Winter 2012/13-Refocus webinar. Though this presentation was a bit lengthy, I thought there was some great upcoming color and style trends that I thought would be fun to share. Below are the highlights and some of my interpretations. Color reports always get me excited and inspired for the […]

  Snake oil. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Just what kind of brew is boiled down essence of snake? Can you drink it? Do you even want to? It seems that vast quantities of snake oil are being consumed across higher education in the form of vendor products that promise to cure what ails you, but […]

I was at a meeting recently where someone accused a group of not engaging in “Thought Leadership.” My first reaction was, “What the heck does that even mean?” I have never been a proponent of business jargon.  I don’t advocate for synergy, I detest the notion of thinking outside the box, and I shudder at […]

Where do we get our inspiration from in University Relations? It turns out we all have different resources that help us to think creatively, strategically, or just make us laugh out loud.  Here’s our list of things we find useful, and they are categorized for your convenience.  Happy clicking!

Ever wonder what goes into designing a brochure, laying out a billboard, or creating a website? Believe it or not, there’s no “Easy Button” when it comes to effective and strategic design. The process is often long and always well thought-out. Here are the steps to producing a successful design project:

Admit it: Anytime you see the posting that there will be a fire drill or tornado drill in the building in which you work, you try to figure out how to be out of the building during the drill. Yeah, yeah….I know: you’re too busy to have to get up and leave, why do they […]

How many meetings have we all been in when someone talks about promoting an initiative, an event, a program, etc., and the first thing people usually talk about is print materials?  Website marketing is usually mentioned much farther down the list. In University Relations, we have flipped the paradigm.  Web is first.  Web is foremost. […]

I am helping my husband plan his family reunion.  We have immersed ourselves in nostalgia, going through old photo albums, connecting with Aunt Hazel’s kids on Facebook, and remembering the unique family history that only members in that exclusive club can appreciate. As part of the fun, we are trying to create a feeling of […]

Month Requested Completed Cancelled % for Completions # of Departments April, 2010 23 18 1 78% 10 April was a month filled with new identities for various areas at UM-Flint. The UM-Flint catalog received a new and refreshed look, designed by our newest temporary staff member, Joyce ElHayek. Joyce just graduated with her Fine Arts […]

March was an extremely busy month for the creative team in UR. We focused heavily on overall brand for the university with establishing the “growing” look, while still creating projects for other departments and organizations. We were on the road quite a bit as well, conducting more focus groups and finding out what high school […]