CELEBRATE! is an annual week-long series of events that showcase the success of the arts and sciences at Elon University, including the annual Elon Student Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) Day. The week is sponsored by Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, which works with CUPID every year to produce CELEBRATE!’s lengthy and often complex schedule of events. The brochure is distributed across campus and provides students and faculty with a means of keeping track of the presentations and performances they may want to attend during the event-filled week.
Project Overview
The brochure is a high-profile project for CUPID, since it is an important way to inform the university population of the CELEBRATE! events. The schedule is organized chronologically with descriptions of every event. It also features photographs from the previous year’s CELEBRATE! Week to both aid in the organization of the schedule information and provide a sneak peek of what to expect during the week. Much of the schedule is taken up by the sessions of SURF, in which Elon undergraduate students exhibit their research in the form of posters and presentations.
Rhetorical Decisions
A significant aspect of putting together the CELEBRATE! brochure is arranging the descriptions of events so the timeline is easy to follow. After all, the purpose of the publication is to provide a clear, simple schedule of events that will make sense to anyone who picks it up. The amount of information provided can be overwhelming, so effectively organizing text, photos, and empty space is crucial to the success of the brochure; the CUPID students who put together the brochure work heavily in software programs such as Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to manage organization and design concerns. Professional communication methods are also integral to the successful completion of the brochure, since the students must regularly contact staff within Elon College and CELEBRATE! event coordinators to ensure all the information is correct before final publication.
CUPID Connections
The CELEBRATE! brochure is a project that really exemplifies the “information design” aspect of CUPID. The huge amount of information in the brochure must be arranged in such a way that is clear and easy for readers to follow; blank spaces between events and definite headings help sort the complicated and varied series of events into small packages of information. In addition, the project gives students the opportunity to gain experience with an important client, the College of Arts and Sciences, and become active in a high-profile series of events at Elon.