Reflecting on Direct Mailers

As a high school senior, I hated scraping the steep piles of irrelevant, glossy mailers off my kitchen counter into the trash. So when I was asked to design two separate direct mailers targeting University of Oklahoma stakeholders, I made it my personal mandate to create non-trashable mailers.

I settled on two groups of incoming or prospective students: aspiring international travelers and potential Gaylord students. I compiled a stakeholder matrix to inform my messaging and design, which aided both drafts.

Overall, I’m not especially happy with either mailer yet. The international mailer needs significant tweaks with alignment, arrangement and a couple content replacements. For the Gaylord mailer, I’m not sure I’ve provided enough human elements to successfully capture student engagement.

Selecting a college can build up to an emotional and high-stakes decision. It’s critical to tactfully craft designs and content to nudge advertising-numb students. I’m holding high standards for this project, but I’m hopeful for standout results by the time I wrap up.