Boise State Online Digital Ad Redesign
Role: Project lead, graphic designer, project manager
Boise State Online’s digital ad templates needed a revamp and a redesign. The previous ads were causing some ad fatigue, and they were difficult to use with photos and long program names, often cutting off important parts of photos and creating awkward inconsistencies because the program names wouldn’t quite fit. I kicked off the project by conducting market research, creating a moodboard, opening up the research phase to the entire marketing department, and holding a conversation with the creative team to establish a visual direction.
Design Choices
Boise State already has a brand, so instead of reinventing it, I utilized elements that were already used throughout the brand. Elements like the orange highlight were sparsely used from time to time, and created a great solution to emphasize “online”.
The blue turf was an element that had been used before, but it was difficult to read copy that was over it because the turf was so bright and contrasty. Instead of getting rid of it, I brought it to life by adding a gradient over it that would make it more subtle to use as a texture.
In addition to gaining inspiration from conducting market research, adding gradients and masking out the subject for some overlay effects really brought the ads to a more modern aesthetic.
Before and After
The Bosie State advertisements were created before my employment, so I used this redesign as a chance to add a more cohesive and modern aesthetic. Below you will see how some of the ads looked before I joined the team, and how I changed them in the redesign.
Visual ads before and after:
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Text ads before and after:
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Icon ads before and after:
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Turf texture before and after:
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A Complete Guide
I put together a complete guide for all of the marketing department to flip through. This way, they could provide feedback and they could see all of the potential layout options we had in our back pocket. Because these are templates meant to use for all of our programs and all of our images, we decided we’d make more versions to accommodate the different lengths of program names and the different composition of photographs.
See a full guide of all layouts below.
