Fresh 15
Inflection's 2015 recruiting campaign created to target the most talented recent graduates in the country.
Inflection’s yearly graduate programs have played an integral role in the longevity of the company. The success of our recruiting campaigns are obvious, attracting nearly 1,500 applicants from top schools such as Harvard, Stanford, & MIT every year, even gaining recognition from CNN Money/Fortune Magazine. Fresh ‘15 is Inflection’s 2015 graduate recruiting program.
Acting as co-creative director/design lead, I was responsible for taking the project from concept to reality. This included, brand exploration, brand identity, visual language, print and marketing deliverables, job booth design and interface design. I partnered with our videographer/photographer, Jake, throughout this project.
FRESHMAN FIFTEEN
The major reason for the success of our graduate recruiting programs is that the always center around a theme. In 2013 (the class I joined) it was the Lucky ‘13 drawing from the luck of the Irish, and 2014 was Fantastic ‘14 drawing from the Fantastic 4 superhero theme. show lucky ‘13 and fantastic ‘14 brands. Originally coming from the freshman fifteen pun and given that majority of the graduates of the class of 2015 were born in the 90s our recruiting team decided on this great name of Fresh ‘15. We decided it could be expanded past purely the 90s and invoke more nostalgia.
With name and theme in hand, the brand needed an identity. Myself and co-creative director set out on brainstorming words we wanted the brand language to represent. We decided these words would act as the foundation for our entire brand identity. Guiding lights that we could look back on at every step of the process. After a few collaborative brainstorming session we decided on five words:
With name and theme in hand, the brand needed an identity. Myself and co-creative director set out on brainstorming words we wanted the brand language to represent. We decided these words would act as the foundation for our entire brand identity. Guiding lights that we could look back on at every step of the process. After a few collaborative brainstorming session we decided on five words:
Attitude, Imaginative, Original, Vibrant, & Real.
GET FRESH WITH US
With a foundation set, it was time for some logo exploration. I set out diving into what made the 90s the 90s. From chunky typefaces to thin handwritten ones, angled geometric shapes to the beginnings of color blocking, and heavily precise drop shadows to graffiti; I was a full on 90s kid. I'm talking pinterests board dedicated to Friends, The Fresh Prince, Hey Arnold, Nickelodeon, and Saved by the Bell (which influenced some initial approaches).
CORPORATE W/ ATTITUDE
Fumbling through pinterest boards and google search results, I still wasn’t sold on any of the initial ideas. Then I stumbled across Frank Olinsky’s MTV logo, it was exactly what we were looking for. It was what all the “fresh” kids were watching in the 90’s, and it perfectly aligned with our five key words. Better yet, MTV had the perfect balance of corporate and originality, similar to Inflection’s culture. After a few rounds of iterations and feedback, we had a logo!
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
With brand and visual language in hand, we needed an online experience to introduce Fresh '15 to the outside world.
Our recruiting website is the most important marketing tool of the campaign. It is generally the first interaction potential candidates will have with Inflection, so it needed to be informative while balancing both the Fresh '15 and Inflection brands.
Inspired by the storytelling narrative of our initial content, I wanted the website experience to follow suit. Working closely with our front end developer, Heather, I included the scrolling parallax effect to give the sensation of flipping through the pages of our Fresh ‘15 story. Continuing with this theme, we thought of site sections as “scenes” with unique titles, character lists, props, sets, and costumes that reflected and enhanced the respective copy. For example, one scene named “Suppressed Youth,” was creative directed to represent the apprehension of having to set aside unique quirks and assimilate to the corporate world after graduating. It featured fellow employees dressed in dark suits (corporate drones) surrounding [suppressing] a recent grad clad in bright 90s attire.
Although the main six scenes are previewed below, I highly recommend visiting the live site to get a better idea of the full experience...it’s not everyday you get the chance to relive the 90s.
THE RESULTS
By the end of the campaign, we received close to 4,000 applicants, 2.5 times the average number of applicants through the years. The Fresh '15 campaign was recognized in Business Insider as one of the most creative startup brands and swag. Lastly, our recruiting program received the Optimas Silver Award, given by Workforce to companies that "exemplify workforce management excellence in areas such as vision, competitive advantage, innovation, service, financial impact, partnership, and global outlook." We eventually selected 23 of the applicants to join our program.
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