Saint Louis University School of Education

Challenge #1

The School of Education desired a space to share its stories and highlight the latest projects within the School and the greater community. With the 100th anniversary rapidly approaching in 2025, it needed an expert in higher education marketing strategies. Paradigm helped the School celebrate its successes and outline plans for the future through a reimagined Signature Report.

Content Strategy

The Signature Report for the School of Education sought to develop a content strategy to showcase its stories, celebrate academic achievements and highlight its commitment to the greater education community.

The School turned to Paradigm to solve this problem, as our agency had well-established expertise in higher ed marketing. Our team first conducted a series of interviews with faculty members, passionate students, successful alumni and external partners — providing an opportunity to share innovative academic pursuits, emerging research efforts and growth in community outreach.

The most effective higher education marketing strategies begin with a basis of understanding. Through conversation, we uncovered stories rooted in excellence, integrity and respect for all of humanity. Each story was laid out into spreads, categorized by key accomplishments, research, outreach and stories from faculty, students and alumni.

Print Design

The Signature Report connects its visuals to the overall Saint Louis University (SLU) brand while also highlighting the vibrancy of the School of Education. To differentiate from our higher ed marketing work with the SLU Chaifetz School of Business and SLU Research Institute, we pulled in SLU’s notable blue with pops of bright yellow and light blue to highlight quotes and additional design elements.

Our designer added graphic variations of the fleur de lis, an iconic symbol in the University’s logo and crest. Additionally, we focused on diverse imagery, teacher and student interactions and photos of notable organizations and projects in the School of Education to break up the stories effectively in each spread.

The design of the Signature Report projects the vibrant and inclusive community the School of Education projects to the world. However, it also evokes warmth and connection — symbolic of the care many educators pour into their work as teachers and administrators.

Results

The Signature Report gave the School an opportunity to share its stories and its broader mission of granting access to education. Through higher ed marketing, the School now resonates with audiences in and beyond the St. Louis community. The report was distributed to over 1,000 constituents of the School while a digital version was made available on its website for all to experience notable stories and accomplishments.

Explore how Paradigm’s higher education marketing strategies reach well beyond SLU’s campus line.

Have a project? Let’s talk. 

Challenge #2

Education relies on an understanding of the past and present. The School of Education (SOE) knew its 100-year legacy could be shared to inspire new generations — its archives just needed to reach the halls.

As part of its centennial celebration, the School turned to Paradigm to transform Fitzgerald Hall into a historic experience.

Environmental Design

Paradigm’s designers crafted the Heritage Wall to reflect the vibrant history of the School of Education. Our goal with this higher ed marketing project was to spotlight historic faculty, alumni achievements and notable milestones. To do so, we struck a balance between valuable information and eye-catching elements.

Visitors are first welcomed by the name of the school itself. “SOE” is spelled out by 3-D shadow boxes filled with school supplies and SLU memorabilia. Many effective higher education marketing strategies build off emotionality, so our designers chose each element to evoke memories of the past as well as the experiences future educators will soon share.

From there, wall wrappings highlight each decade, from the 1920s to the 2020s, with a corresponding color intended to make them easily distinguishable. Archival photography speckles the Heritage Wall, slowly transitioning from black and white to color as the years progress.

Additional 3-D elements foster further visual interest in the timeline. Names, dates and a line connecting them all jut out from the walls to draw your attention to the accompanying stories. When taken as a whole, the wall offers a journey through time — where the School’s legacy will be celebrated time and time again.