Greetings!
Welcome to CommCentered. My name is RJ Thompson. I am a designer, marketer, teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, and a whole bunch of other things. Presently, I am the Associate Director of Student Engagement in the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. You likely found yourself here because we are connected on Twitter or LinkedIn or are members of the same Facebook groups like #HigherEdSocial. Either way, I’m glad you’re here.
CommCentered is designed to be a multi-dimensional resource that features some of the best examples of marketing, design, and communications work being created in the Higher Education sector across the United States. The name “CommCentered” refers to the ideal alignment of strategy, creative execution, and engagement that can be found in the many excellent examples of educational advertising. I created this site because I had a need to see what was being done in this space from my colleagues and competitors. I hope your experience on the site is useful, meaningful, and memorable enough to contribute to its growth.
Each work that is featured on CommCentered is selected at the discretion of the author of the post it is featured in. Each post will feature images of the work, insights from the creative team who produced the work (if available), and a positive and constructive review of the work. Each review will provide insight on strategy (vision), creative direction (execution), and audience engagement (returns).
Above all else, we wish to celebrate the works that represent the best of Higher Ed advertising and all the talented creative teams who produce them. As an academically-focused research tool, CommCentered acts as an observational or longitudinal study of the work being created to advertise education. As the archive grows over time, so too will our sector’s collective understanding of how we advertise higher education.
I hope you’ll consider submitting work you and your creative teams have produced for your university, college, or technical school. With enough participation, I hope to create learning documents and potentially portfolio books/e-books that feature the best of Higher Ed marketing communications on an annual basis.
Finally, CommCentered is a non-profit endeavor supported by my design research practice, +Public. +Public is a B-Corp classified social enterprise in the State of Pennsylvania. The mission of this company is to use design as a catalyst for change in communities, learning, and culture. Any products developed from this site that reflect a monetary gain will be reinvested into the Higher Ed marketing community and to perpetuate the continued research and operations of this site.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, concerns, or opportunities.
Thank you!
