The University of Houston Graphics Alumni Partnership, UHGAP, is an organization made up of alumni whose primary focus is to give back to the Graphic Communications program in various ways. One of those is by providing scholarships to the best and brightest students. To help raise funds for the scholarships, a series of posters were created to help raise awareness of the campaign.

The purpose/intent of this campaign was to help the design community, and specifically university alumni, understand that UHGAP is investing in continuing education and that there are multiple ways of giving back and getting involved. The goal was to get more people involved by sending the posters out to local design firms, specifically those with employees that graduated from the University of Houston program. In doing so, our hope was that everyone, even the lower level employees or production assistants, would be encouraged to contribute by seeing and understanding how the students have benefited from said contributions.

The first poster gives thanks to those that have given and recognizes those that were awarded scholarships as well as displays portraits and a testimonial as to how they have benefitted, specifically, from the UHGAP scholarship fund. On the reverse, a diagram was illustrated that outlines how to create a 3-dimensional pig. The pig serves as a visual metaphor that reminds the audience that the organization is collecting funds and that no amount is too small or too large.

The second poster contains the actual pig template to be cut out. On the reverse, testimonials are expounded upon from scholarship recipients. There is also information about the Graphic Communications program, in general, as well as sponsor information and donor levels.

Once the pig has been cut-out and built, it stands alone as a three dimensional object, i.e. “paper-craft”. Posters have been sent out to the design community at large, encouraging them to display the poster and pig prominently as a reminder to contribute to the UHGAP scholarship fund. The idea is for the campaign to be expounded upon with more testimonials in the coming months and that everyone at all levels has the ability to contribute – thereby furthering the design community at large.

Scholarship recipients were also interviewed on camera and asked specific questions as to their experience at the University of Houston and what it meant to receive a scholarship during their education.

Special thanks goes out to those involved in this project: Daniel Bosse, President of UHGAP; Kim Howard, university representative; Drew Donovan, for providing the photography and video rough cuts, Chris Switzer, for concept development; Mike Castro, for editing the video; Olmstead Kirk Paper Company, for providing the paper; Signature Media, for providing the printing.

For more information about this campaign and the University of Houston Graphics Alumni Partnership, please visit uhgap.org. For more information about the University of Houston Department of Art, please visit art.uh.edu.