One of Brandeis' myriad internal agencies is gaining some off-campus recognition this fall. Graphic designers Deborah Wieder and Zak Kubert, who work in the Office of Communications, will receive awards from the University and College Design Association for their respective work on a mini-viewbook for Admissions and the guidebook for the 2009 Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.Though most in the Brandeis community will be unfamiliar with the Admissions viewbook, which is mailed to high school juniors who have expressed an interest in coming to Brandeis, the Festival of the Arts guidebook was part of an overall campaign Kubert designed around the Office of the Arts' slogan, "Art is Happening." Some may remember the large banner hanging on the south facade of the Shapiro Campus Center, as well as the posters and other publicity materials distributed around campus, that featured swashes of watercolors layered with photographs and text. The campaign also included postcards and brochures that were sent out to local residents.

These awards are the first Wieder and Kubert have won since coming to Brandeis last fall. Since then, they've worked on over 400 projects for various campus organizations including academic departments, the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, Admissions and the Office of the Arts.

"Deborah and Zak have been here for a year and they've really taken the lead, taking charge of revamping the look of our publications and making sure everything's dynamic and fresh and new. And winning an award, to us, it sort of underscores their effort," said Audrey Griffin-Goode, director of integrated marketing at the Office of Communications. Wieder, who has an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and Kubert, a recent graduate of the Art Institute in Boston, adamantly stated that the awards, though theirs in name, really belong to the Office of Communications as a whole. "I think it's not really our award. It's our office's award because we collaborate here. . I couldn't do this without the help of everyone who's involved," said Wieder.

Indeed, according to Wieder, Kubert and Griffin-Goode, the Office of Communications' design projects start out with a brainstorming session to develop a direction for each project to take. With the Admissions viewbook, Wieder says Assistant Vice President of Communications Ken Gornstein came up with the idea of a small, square book as opposed to a larger pamphlet. Out of their brainstorming session also came the idea of including questions throughout the book, beginning with "What are you doing right now?" on the front cover. Says Wieder, "We did want to play off the Web concept a little bit and Facebook. ... And what's interesting to me is when you have the opportunity to have something evolve into the final piece, these little special moments happen in the book, and I think that's what's fun to me about the creative process."

"The client really has to take a leap of faith and trust us, because these are really different from what they are used to seeing. . The client was thinking, 'Well, it's rather small for a viewbook,' which is true, and maybe it'd get lost in a table, but over time you get more excited about it, and in the end it's worked out really well. But I can see where they had those concerns, so again, I think it's great that they did trust us and kept helping us getting it crafted to where it would work for them," Wieder said.

Wieder described the Admissions viewbook as more of a strategic piece and Kubert's collection of publicity materials for the Office of the Arts as "more of an artistic creation, that Zak had this vision and he created this, and the client loved it," she said.

"When they came to me with that idea [of happenings], I knew that they wanted something that had a lot of energy in the design, and they really wanted to show all that the arts have to offer at Brandeis, so I wanted to balance all of these aspects," said Kubert.

Discussing the development process for the Festival of the Arts guidebook, Kubert said, "I've always liked watercolor. I like how vibrant you can make it; you can make it really subtle. . There's a lot you can do with it, and, plus, it's transparent."

"I painted in the office for most of a day, I just painted watercolor in here and then I scanned all of them in. . I was trying to get a nice texture of how they would look on top of each other, because if you take paint and you mix it, you get a different color, but if you digitally take [the paint colors] and mix them, you get a totally different effect," he said.

Wieder and Kubert, along with the Office of Communications as a whole, are looking forward to their next 400 projects. Having just finished a project for the Brandeis Theater Company, they're preparing for their next round of assignments. "We have a whole suite of things we have to do for Admissions, and we've been working based on this concept to create a cohesive package for their whole campaign, . and I think, for me, it's going to be exciting to finish up the whole suite of materials for them," said Wieder.