Chosen because Durham Academy won Silver for Magazine Cover Design (Enrollment 351 or More) in the 2024 Brilliance Awards. InspirED talked with Victoria Price, Durham Academy Creative Services Manager, about the win.

“Clean, creative, and clever. The radiating graphic elements display the variety of school experiences possible, which is represented by the central, prominent school logo. Well done!”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Step 1: Focus on a Theme

The cover of this issue of Durham Academy Magazine cover reflects the feature article “Prepared for Life: The Science & Art of Educational Excellence.” It’s a five-part, in-depth look at the shifts in academic philosophy and practices that DA has implemented over the last five years. Since the article is all-encompassing — covering Preschool through Upper School — a single photograph wouldn’t be able to represent the topic effectively. The DA Marketing and Communications Team opted instead for a graphic cover to represent the shifts.

Step 2: Collaborate To Arrive At Philosophy

Victoria Price, Durham Academy Creative Services Manager, explains, “The final cover design evolved after conversations with numerous members of the DA team including within the Marketing and Communications office, with academic leaders across divisions, as well as with members of the Administrative Team. Those conversations focused on a simple question. What do we mean when we say Durham Academy strives for "educational excellence"? A few common themes surfaced.”

An excellent education is future thinking.
An excellent education gives students every opportunity to pursue their passions.
An excellent education continues to build on itself.
An excellent education is never finished.
Durham Academy offers an excellent education.

These themes became the backbone for this cover design.

Step 3: Details, Details, Details

The design was created almost exclusively in Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator, icons were created to represent different opportunities that Durham Academy offers. These icons were then placed in concentric circles radiating out from the DA logo.

“When viewed as a whole design,” Victoria says, “the radiating circles, lines, and icons mimic the window of spaceships in several sci-fi/futuristic films — looking out and looking forward. This subtly emphasized how DA is forward-thinking.”

Upon closer inspection, more details emerge. Closest to the center are icons representing “core” education classes — math, science, social studies, and language arts. Building out from the center, “core” educational concepts shift. From math and language arts, disciplines like music and engineering emerge. Science and social studies together lead to sustainability and baking. Social Studies and language arts build skills that shine in speech and debate and world language courses. Math and science combine to inspire coding and robotics.

The design doesn’t end there. Subtle gray circles continue to radiate outside of the icons. These allow the viewer to recognize that there is still room — room for curiosity, for new passions, and the arrival of new opportunities.

While this design is finished, it reflects the idea that an excellent education never is.

Finally, all of these elements start from a single point: the DA logo. All of these opportunities start and are made possible because of a DA experience.

The entire process for the cover design took about five days.

Step 4: Advice for Small Shops

Victoria says, “The best advice is to start with conversations to understand the purpose behind your cover design. What does your cover/feature article say? Then explore several ways to visually express those thoughts. This cover started as a 1- by 2-inch thumbnail sketch on a page of about 20 options. Very few of those thumbnails were worth exploring, but sometimes, you must go through the bad ideas to find the one that tells your story.”

Would you do anything differently?

“Honestly, no,” Victoria says. “Not that this design is perfect, and there couldn’t have been a different solution. With any aspect of creativity, it is important to realize when you successfully answered the prompt and, once you’ve reached the solution, to stop before you muddy the waters. This design answers the question (What does educational excellence at DA look like?) and doesn’t push so far that the viewer can no longer understand.

Congratulations, Durham Academy! You are brilliant!

TEAM
Leslie King, Durham Academy, Director of Marketing & Communications
Melody Butts, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications
Kate Auger, Digital Content Specialist
Victoria Price, Creative Services Manager
Dylan Howlett, Content Strategist/Writer

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