- NMSU College of Engineering Design System
My first salaried design position was Head of Graphic Design for New Mexico State University's Information Services. Our small design and editorial team was swamped with requests for custom brochures from all the various colleges and departments within the university.
The College of Engineering was a particular problem. It had eight departments, each with a highly competitive department head who wanted their own bespoke brochure. I suggested to my boss that we needed a design system for the whole College of Engineering. She told me I would have to sell the idea to each of the department heads. They were all elderly gentlemen of a rather narcissistic and professorial nature. One of them in particular was especially opposed to the new design.
I remember him well. He was a man in his eighties by appearance, with a shock of dazzling white hair above bright blue eyes and wearing a bright red bow tie with white polka dots. And he was concerned about the dourness of my proposed color scheme: brightly color-coded department titles on a black background. I told him the black background was not necessarily dour, and that it depended on context. I asserted that in the context of engineering the black background and bright foreground colors signified manufacturing, technology, logic, and precision. I'm not sure he was convinced, but he approved the design.
NMSU College of Engineerng Design System Samples
- Outcome
The College of Engineering design system proved to be a success. It saved time and money, smoothed the design and approval process, and simplified production. It set a precedent for how Information Services could better work together with NMSU's many colleges and departments and led to the creation of more such systems to better serve the university's design and publication needs.