CSU Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024
Every year Colorado State University invites alumni and friends back to campus for Homecoming and Family Weekend. Our team creates the overall campaign and toolkit for campus and community partners to leverage as they host a weekend full of activities.
Our team creates the Homecoming & Family Weekend branding every year with a refreshed look and theme to play with. In fall of 2024, to align with Colorado State University’s new Find Your Energy brand that launched in spring, we chose to adapt the brand’s look and feel into a “signature event.”
Utilizing the brand’s “reverb ram” template, I populated the grid with photos that showed how diverse and fun Homecoming & Family Weekend is to our alumni and friends. Some visit for the football game, while others return for a reunion dinner with their graduating class.
The general HCFW reverb ram contains CSU spirit such as a french horn for our marching band or shots of the iconic trees on the Oval, and events like the football game or fireworks for Friday Night Lights.
The CSU Alumni Association hosts a plethora of events for our eight colleges, and we work with their team to brand each event. I created a toolkit that included a one-page Visual Brand Language document for other designers, and templates in Canva for social media/postcards/event signage for the less design-savvy team members.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
Within the CSU Alumni Association, I created suites for 4 major events happening over the 4-day long weekend. The first is an award ceremony celebrating alumni who have distinguished themselves professionally, brought honor to the University, and have made significant contributions of time and/or philanthropy to the University and their community. With this event, I utilized iconic photography of campus and the award’s ram horn shape. I prominently featured our classic university colors, green and gold, for this die-hard rams grad audience.
Photography courtesy of CSU Photography
Photos from the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards event:
50 Year Club
Another event is a luncheon and award ceremony celebrating graduates from 50 or more years ago. With this event, I utilized historic photos from our archives and prominently featured one of our oldest brand colors, Aggie Orange.
One deliverable I have a joy creating is a photobooth background collage that takes all the yearbook photos from the graduating class’ year. Guests enjoy finding themselves and lamenting on the days when they had all that hair!
Photography courtesy of CSU Photography
Photos from the 2024 50 Year Club event:
A few other collateral pieces created, including general promotional material or smaller events the CSU Alumni Association provided minimal marketing support for. This is just a small sample of the 100+ deliverables I created for the entire 4-day Homecoming and Family Weekend:
Save the Date full-spread magazine ad
General HCFW social media post as part of the toolkit
General HCFW 1920x1080 digital screen as part of the toolkit. Used on TVs across campus
General HCFW poster as part of the toolkit. Printed on-demand for campus and community promotion
Hotel print piece as part of the toolkit. Distributed to partner hotels in the community during the weekend
Social media graphic for 50 Year Club event
Social Media graphic for the Black Excellence Dinner event
Social media graphic for The Member Mingle event