The Challenge
Fully need-blind admission is a rare thing to offer, but Bowdoin College in Maine is one of the few institutions that does. Its $500 million campaign needed to keep its alumni engaged in supporting these students and their tremendous ambitions. We set out to create a campaign brand that struck the right balance between future-forward and the familiar, highlighting new opportunities without straying from the Bowdoin feel alumni knew and loved. The result was the “From Here” campaign name and visual identity system. The visually striking campaign invites donors to reflect on all Bowdoin has accomplished—and use this vantage point to see a world of opportunity. Bold but not boastful, the campaign was launched in early 2020, with a copy of the campaign brochure distributed to every contactable member of Bowdoin’s deeply engaged alumni base.
The Impact
A month after launch, Bowdoin had raised 66% of its $500 million goal.
Project components
- Name/Theme
- Visual identity
- Logo
- Manifesto
- Creative
- Strategy
Where do we go from here?
What an extraordinary gift, and responsibility, to be able to ask ourselves that question.
To take full measure of our optimism, our hope, and our tenacity.
To appreciate the fullness of possibility, and given what Bowdoin means to us and to the world, and given what the Bowdoin community has shown us they can do.
We’ve witnessed what Bowdoin students do given the right tools, the right mentors, and an environment that values disciplined inquiry, creativity, and intellectual fearlessness.
And that gives us reason to hope—for the environment, for democracy, for humanity, for our own lives and the lives of others throughout the world.
Every moment of every year of the Bowdoin experience is ripe with promise. That’s a gift, too.
Let’s see where we can go … from here.
