Linda Darnall Creative Director

What If...

...you had clients who were really open to fresh ideas and innovative executions?
...you worked on an outdoor campaign, television commercial, a magazine, and print ads — in one day?
...someone you worked with told you you'd done something brilliant?
...you had everything you needed to do great work — from the newest computer, to a comfortable chair, and a smart team?
...you had the freedom and flexibility of a small group and the fringe benefits of a large company?
...you knew you were respected, valued and appreciated?

Welcome to my world. How cool is that?

Working with Forsyth Tech is like working with a different client every day, the college has so many different audiences. The tagline we created—"More Than You Know"—is the absolute truth. The four periodicals we've developed all demonstrate that Forsyth Tech has much more to offer than almost anybody realizes.

The first publication we created was what we call the Viewzine. It's a viewbook that has the look of a magazine, and it's been an effective recruiting tool. The big breakthrough here was using real students and recent graduates of Forsyth Tech to communicate all the reasons for going to Forsyth Tech. It also shows the range of students you'll find in degree programs – from a 15-year-old who had been home-schooled and was ready for college to a 65-year-old lawyer who was preparing for an entirely different career.

Next came Make Your Mark. Here we had two audiences, high school students and high school counselors. Forsyth Tech has programs that allow students in high school to take college courses for free, and earn college credit for them. Not many people seemed to know about these options. We wanted to let the students – and also the people who influence their decisions about education – understand the programs and the benefits. Randy, the writer for Make Your Mark, must have vivid memories of being in high school. What a great job he did communicating with this audience!

Kaleidoscope is where we made the biggest change. For years Forsyth Tech had been sending out a tabloid size listing of all its credit courses to every household in Forsyth and Stokes County. I think if I could go door to door to every house in these two counties and tell them about Forsyth Tech, everybody would go there. I took that idea to Kaleidoscope, and thought, what would I want to tell people? So instead of just a straight list of courses, the publication has information on what personality traits are suited for particular careers, and what kind of salary you can expect if you graduate from a particular program. It has information about costs, and how to go through the admissions process. I tried to make the information very simple.

The most recent publication is one we'd been advocating ever since we became Forsyth Tech's marketing partner. Tech Quarterly is aimed at the larger community, particularly the business community and to potential donors. It's professional in its look and writing style. Here, the articles are more about the significance of Forsyth Tech to the community. And this magazine gives me, and Janet, the writer, a chance to be less literal. So here you'll see some word play, and some illustrations, since we know the audience is used to interpreting metaphoric messages and stylized images.

In all these periodicals I'm proud that we have added value to Forsyth Tech's communications. And I'm pretty happy about the 9% increase in enrollment that happened between fall 2007 and fall 2008.