New Work: Yale Tomorrow
In 2006, Yale University embarked on the most ambitious fundraising drive in its history. President Richard Levin laid out the campaign’s objectives and set a challenging goal: to raise three billion dollars in five years. This fall, the campaign comes to an end, crossing the finish line with an extraordinary $3.886 billion, a remarkable figure considering it was raised in the midst of one of the worst global recessions in recent history.
Pentagram is proud to have served as Yale’s consultants on this project, designing the campaign’s graphic identity, materials for the launch event, and communications pieces over the last half decade.
The biggest question faced by a successful institution like Yale as it embarks on a fundraising effort is often “Why do you need the money?” The campaign’s theme, Yale Tomorrow, was meant to shift the emphasis from today to the future, a future filled with unknowable challenges. The campaign case statement book begins with a series of predictive statements about what tomorrow might hold (culled from a survey of Yale faculty), illustrated with evocative photographs (by faculty and graduates of the Yale School of Art’s prestigious photography program).
The graphic symbol for “fast forward” is boldly superimposed over a sepia-toned watercolor of James Gamble Rogers’s Harkness Tower, a Yale landmark. On the facing page is a passage which concludes, “If we love Yale, we must make sure it is ready for its best tomorrows.” The balance of the book is a detailed description of the campaign’s goals and fundraising priorities.
The fast forward icon served as a connective element in the campaign. Paired with a portrait of a bulldog, the traditional University mascot, it reiterated the campaign theme in rebus form. Individual books were created to make the case for each of Yale’s graduate schools and academic centers. Each book echoed the main theme, tailored to its own audience: Law Tomorrow (for Yale Law School), Management Tomorrow (for the Yale School of Management) and so forth. The program was further held together by the common use of Yale Blue and the typeface family created exclusively for Yale by faculty member Matthew Carter.
The campaign officially launched with an extraordinary weekend in September 2006. The luminescent alabaster panels of Gordon Bunshaft’s Beinecke Library were turned blue for an evening celebration. Guests received customized “yPods” loaded with podcasts of lectures by Yale professors.
A unique website was created to serve as the online home of Yale Tomorrow. It provided updates to alumni on the campaign’s progress and served as a vehicle for making donations. Eli magazine (named after Elihu Yale, the benefactor whose gift founded Yale in 1718) was created to promote the campaign in greater depth to a wider range of audiences.
Pentagram’s connections to Yale are many. One of our founding partners was an alumnus of Yale’s School of Art, and so is one of our current partners. Our partners teach there today, and have served as consultants to Yale’s Schools of Medicine, Art, Forestry and Environmental Studies, Drama, Management, and Architecture. Thanks to the generous participants in Yale Tomorrow, the University has new and renovated academic buildings, the new Smilow Cancer Hospital, the growing West Campus, a restored Yale Bowl. The University goes forward with $1.57 billion in new endowment, $227 million of that for financial aid, and 68 new faculty chairs. The Yale Tomorrow campaign has truly positioned a great university for an even greater tomorrow. We are honored to have played a role.
Project Team: Michael Bierut, partner-in-charge and designer; Jena Sher and Yve Ludwig, designers.