By, Anne Claire Foreman
Business Background
DTH At A Glance is The Daily Tar Heel’s daily email newsletter. Every day, At A Glance is sent out to thousands of students, staff and community members. Each email features top stories from the campus and surrounding community. At A Glance became an increasingly crucial communication tool this spring when The Daily Tar Heel stopped print production due to COVID-19.
The Problem
As the DTH’s main point of contact with the UNC community amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it was more important than ever for the newsletter to look eye-catching and modern. Because the newsletter header was designed in 2015, an update was needed.
The Strategy
Graphic designer Angie Shen spearheaded the DTH At A Glance project. Shen wanted to redesign the newsletter header to match current DTH branding, with a modern update. Because she knew she needed to remain consistent with the DTH’s color scheme, Shen focused a large part of the upgrade on the header’s font. She replaced the old bold and sans serif header font with a cleaner serif font. The font change was the first step towards a modernized design.
One of the other design concepts that wasn’t chosen because it didn’t match the DTH’s brand identity
Next, Shen incorporated patterns to make the header more eye-catching. She added a blue striped border to draw eyes towards the design. Additionally, Shen added a brief newsletter catchphrase that reads: “Everything you need to know about UNC, in your inbox, every day from The Daily Tar Heel.” The catchphrase quickly articulates the purpose and importance of the newsletter and added another visually appealing element.
The Outcome
Anna Pogarcic, the 2020-21 editor-in-chief of the DTH, noted that the new design creates unity between the newsletter and the paper itself. This unity can help build a connection in the reader’s minds so they associate the DTH as their news source.
“I think the new look certainly makes it look sleeker and more professional, which is especially important for attracting students who are busy and receive tons of emails each day,” said Pogarcic.
The Analysis
Overall, the Brand Studio was successful in communicating with the DTH to update the newsletter design. The design is now more eye-catching and cohesive with the DTH’s branding elements. Incorporating DTH branded fonts and patterns into the design strengthened cohesion between the newspaper and email newsletter.
The Conclusion
1893 Brand Studio combines excellent storytelling and the ability to connect businesses and organizations with customers. Like DTH At A Glance, redesign and rebranding are two of our graphic design specialties. Additionally, our graphic designers specialize in logo design, marketing materials and flyers. For a full list of our services, work samples and contact information, click here.
