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Greenlee School Website Redesign

The summer before I left the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, my supervisor and I, with additional help from the Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, worked to redesign the Greenlee School’s website. This transition was made to transition the site from Drupal to WordPress, which the College also used, in order to streamline the school’s content and posting capability.

This was a very involved process, which included focus groups with the website’s primary users (students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni), many brainstorming sessions and a moving a lot of content. In the end, all of our work led to the creation of two separate sites, one for the school’s general audiences and another specifically for Greenlee School alumni. 

While the project wasn’t completed and implemented before I left in August 2016, the bulk of the work — streamlining, moving and classifying existing content, determining necessary pages and classifications — had been done. My supervisor, who remained at the Greenlee School after I left, saw this website overhaul through to completion in the summer of 2017. The delay was due to many factors, including a backlog in technical assistance, the departure of the school’s director, and the hiring of my replacement at the school.

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2016 Greenlee Glimpse

The 2016 Greenlee Glimpse was the final project I took on for the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. As I transitioned out of my position as the school’s communication specialist, I was fortunate enough to be able to take on the project as an independent contractor. In this capacity I was able to work remotely as the editor of the third alumni magazine I created for the school as I traveled across the west coast in the fall of 2016.

Working on the magazine while traveling couldn’t have worked out better. While internet connectivity proved challenging to find at times, I was able to visit and interview one of the school’s alumni who lives and works in Los Angeles and was named as one of Forbes’ 40 Under 40 in Advertising and Marketing in 2016. This feature story ended up being the cover story, using images that I captured during my interview with Stafford.

As usual, I worked with Greenlee professor Deb Gibson and her feature writing students, who contributed content for the Glimpse. This year I again chose to design the publication myself and felt comfortable taking more risks with some design elements in the magazine, which I believe turned out well and made the magazine more visually appealing.

I wrote two of the feature stories for the 2016 Glimpse, which was a great exercise for me while traveling. Conducting interviews, crafting narratives and acquiring artwork for these stories kept my mind active while I was exploring the western United States. My feature stories on Greenlee alumnus Tyler Stafford and outgoing Greenlee School Director Dr. Michael Bugeja are below.


 

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2015 Greenlee Glimpse

Planning for the 2015 edition of the Greenlee Glimpse began as I put the 2014 magazine to the spring before. Ahead of the presidential election, Iowa claimed its usual spotlight as the first state to caucus in the nation and politicians descended upon the state in droves. With that, some professors had their classes covering candidates’ visits on campus or in surrounding areas. This inspired me to feature those students and Greenlee alumni working at professional news outlets, for the magazine’s cover story. 

In my second year producing this publication, I decided to design the 58-page publication myself and am really pleased with how the layouts — especially the feature spreads — turned out. Having shot photos throughout the year, the I had plenty of material for the magazine, which made the job so much easier.

I really lucked out with the cover, though. I wasn’t sure what I was going to use until I attended a Bernie Sanders rally at Iowa State just before the state’s caucuses. I went with my camera and ended up sitting right behind the press pool, which made for an awesome focal point, complete with an American flag backdrop. I couldn’t have planned it better if I had tried.

My cover story “Covering the Caucuses” can be read below.

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2014 Greenlee Glimpse

The 2014 Greenlee Glimpse was the first major publication I was solely responsible for producing. This project began as soon as I started my position in June 2014, with planning content and organizing the mailer that goes out to all of the school’s alumni requesting their latest news.

Throughout the fall I worked with students to complete stories and visual content for the magazine, while overseeing a complete redesign of the publication. Working through the publishing process was certainly eye-opening. It required me to analyze the publication’s audience and reach, determine the best format and style for readers, as well as the appropriate quantity of magazines to order based on both the audience’s and the school’s needs.

Managing such a large project and keeping on top of deadlines — my own and others’ — did prove challenging. But the process required me to use time efficiently and be immediate and decisive throughout the planning and production processes. Though it took longer than I had anticipated, I was very happy with the final publication — a perfectly-bound, 56-page, 9-by-13 inch magazine with a fresh look and feel. Later in the spring, the school’s namesake, Bob Greenlee, also complimented the magazine, saying it was one of the best he had seen through the years.