updates

Juyly 13, 2010

The end of the school year was a blur of activity as it is every year. Among other projects, we: designed flyers and posters for math and science teacher collaboration days; produced a booklet highlighting high-priority occupations in support of a joint venture between BCTC and Reading Area Community College; upgraded the design of a website for the John Paul II Center for Special Education; and helped Reading Muhlenberg CTC launch a presence on Facebook.

July 9, 2010

To advertise and promote attendance at three major-league professional development events for school leaders, we produced marketing materials for the 2010–2011 Leadership Series. The message was spread via printed pieces and the Web, including a two-minute video overview. View everything here.

June 1, 2010

Since the Facebook community is approaching 500 million users, and many of our employees and clients are Facebook users, we decided it was time to offer information about our services via this cultural phenomenon. On May 26, 2010, we officially launched the BCIU’s page on Facebook.

To support the rollout, we created a suite of materials in a variety of media. Colorful tentcards that dispense business cards with our Facebook URL were placed throughout BCIU facilities. A new social media hub, a collection of links to BCIU’s social media presence and resources, was added to BCIU’s official website. An interactive, online “flip book” provides guidelines for responsible social media participation; a small quantity of full-color printed booklets was also produced.

In order to provide an alternative to text-based materials, we created three short videos. The first introduces the Facebook page; the second informs people about BCIU’s social media hub; and the third acts as an abridged version of the social media flip book.

To encourage participation, we coordinated a promotion whereby fans of BCIU’s page on Facebook are automatically entered into a drawing for donated prizes.

We are confident that Facebook will help us to reach employees, educators, and members of the community in an efficient, engaging way. Come join the conversation at www.berksiu.org/facebook.

May 10, 2010

It was an evening filled with motion and emotion. The dancers whirled and jumped and floated across the stage. The musicians evoked feelings that ranged from peaceful solitude to unfettered exuberance. The Dance China NY dance troupe and the Wu Peter Tang Musical Ensemble performed at the Miller Center for the Arts in a cultural event sponsored by the BCIU's Asian Studies Collaborative.

To capture even a sense of the evening's spectacle was a challenge for our photographer. While he did manage to capture a few fluid compositions within the borders of his frame, the assignment's big payoff was simply the opportunity of having his soul stirred by beautiful music.

May 6, 2010

When our colleagues in the professional development arena devised six days of training for new and student teachers and needed to alert the school districts quickly, they called on us for help. We developed an eye-catching three-paneled flyer in a nifty square format that provided enough information to encourage people to attend the sessions starting in September. While we were in “creative problem-solving” mode, we coined a name and a tagline for the series as well - Ready, Set, Teach: Tools & Techniques for Beginning Teachers.

April 20, 2010

Most photographers will tell you that location photography is a twin-edged sword. It sometimes presents interesting opportunities and the exciting challenge of on-the-spot problem solving and, at other times, confining limitations and the intimidating challenge of on-the-spot problem solving. A couple of recent assignments for Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center provided our photographer with both scenarios.

To illustrate an article about a student's co-op experience, we traveled to the job site and found it to be a warehouse full of cables, conduit, and all types of electrical supplies. The student was very patient as we positioned him in various settings in hopes of showing him working among the tools and trappings of his trade.

We also shot photos of an RMCTC alumnus whose work involves computerized drafting. Rather than make another photo of a person sitting in front of a computer screen, we photographed him outside standing amidst an array of huge steel girders. The size, color, and shape of the girders became strong compositional elements in what turned out to be an effective environmental portrait. Problem solved.

April 13, 2010

The high costs of cyber charter schools are motivating school districts and parents to investigate the financial benefits and other advantages of Berks Online Learning, BCIU's partnership with Lincoln Interactive. To satisfy the need for more information about the new service, we coined a tagline (learn globally; graduate locally), clarified the marketing message, and developed an informative brochure and a helpful web page.

March 24, 2010

Our relationship with Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center is a vital and mutually beneficial one. Our usual function is to help publicize the exciting career preparation that is happening there; today, we are playing a more direct role in the educational process by hosting an RMCTC student shadow.

We've brought Austin, a junior in the Information Technology-Web Design program, into the inner sanctum of the BCIU Public Relations Department to show him one example of life in a busy communications office. He is seeing how our various team members develop websites, design graphics, write content, make and manipulate photos, and manage social media in our ongoing efforts to connect and interact with our multiple internal and external audiences. We expect a lot of learning to occur today-on both sides. Austin will see how the pros do it, and we will get to see things from the perspective of a young person who can't remember what life was like before the dawn of the World Wide Web.

March 19, 2010

A wide variety of internal and external clients sought our marketing and design assistance in the weeks since our last update. Recent projects include an annual report for the Berks Business Education Coalition, a newsletter and annual report card for Wyomissing Area School District, and various printed pieces for the Asian Studies Collaborative.

Our work with the curriculum staff led us to devising a solution to a packaging challenge: how to organize hundreds of sheets of paper (curriculum maps, assessments, career activities) so that they, as a single unit, could remain intact for district reference while separate components could be loaned out to teachers for duplication. We designed a ring binder with index tabs and a series of clear plastic envelopes with cover sheets to organize the various sets of content and placed everything in economical plastic file boxes with custom-designed decals. We think the project is a good example of how intelligent design is often the driving force behind efficient organization and effective communication.

February 23, 2010

Each year the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association conducts the Excellence in Education Communications Contest. PR pros working for school districts and intermediate units compete against each other in categories such as websites, newsletters, annual reports, special projects, etc. The good-natured rivalry gets fairly intense as association members seek validation from their colleagues and compliments from their peers.

The BCIU PR team captured three awards this year: an Award of Excellence for the Asian Studies Collaborative Logo Design and Branding Project; an Award of Honor for the new BCIU Website; and an Award of Honor for the BCTC Fall Recruitment Campaign.

Generally speaking, when our clients are happy with our work, we are happy too. Nevertheless, it’s nice to receive kudos from communication professionals who have expressed appreciation of our work.

February 12, 2010

When two major snowstorms combined to dump more than 30 inches of snow on the Berks County area in less than a week, the resulting early dismissals, late starts, and snow days tightened the deadlines on a variety of PR projects.

No matter what the weather is outside, the World Wide Web remains a hungry beast. We fed it recently with updates regarding Child Care Information Services and Governor Mifflin School District. Other projects include final edits to the 2010 BCIU Education Directory, publicity for the You Be The Chemist competition, brand concept and a save-the-date card for the Administrators' Conference, and design of an annual report for BerksTALKLINE.

january 29, 2010

While the president's State-of-the-Union address and Apple's debut of the iPad threatened to distract us this week, we remained fairly focused on a diverse set of projects.

We developed an identity for Berks Online Learning, a service that enables local high school students to complete coursework over the Internet. In addition, we designed a newsletter for the Asian Studies Collaborative, a slide show for the Human Resources department, and a save-the-date postcard for the Leadership Series. We also worked with the press to publicize a donation from the Alternative Education program to the Ashley Boyer Scholarship Fund at the Goggleworks.

january 20, 2010

As Pennsylvania continues to place emphasis on the importance of early childhood education, we continue to work with our colleagues in the BCIU Child Care program to build their brand and promote their services.

To clarify and communicate their message, we wrote a tag line, identified key benefits for parents, and designed two display ads. Our work continues on other marketing and advertising materials, including brochures, Web pages, and a billboard.

January 11, 2010

We are happy to announce that we have filled the PR Specialist position that had been vacant for several months and are once again operating at full capacity.

Jason Tremblay has joined the team in the role of writer/content developer. Jason's interest in and familiarity with social networking media will inform and fortify our ability to help our clients utilize Facebook, Twitter, and other Web tools to their advantage.

Read Jason's bio.