From the Nominator

Telling the Story of the University of Chicago publication began as a way to convey the broader story of the school, including its history, its vast accomplishments, and the overarching mission of this historic institution. While being a top tier university that is consistently ranked as one of the leading research schools in the nation, surprisingly, the university’s reputation does not precede it. 

For more than 125 years, the University of Chicago has been breaking boundaries and pushing the advancement of knowledge across a spectrum of disciplines. More than 93 people associated with the university have won the Nobel Prize. Scholarship here is responsible for fundamental paradigm shifts, new schools of thought, and immense global impact. 

So why has this story not been told before? And what made it such a large challenge? Partly it’s our culture. Individualism, autonomy, and academic freedom are what make UChicago such a prolific producer of ideas and original thinking. It’s also what has kept its story so quiet, and why trying to tell it well was such a monumental undertaking. 

Telling the Story of the University of Chicago is not just a brochure. It’s part cultural ethos, brand manifesto, and historical summary all in one. It brings together, in relatively few pages, the story of an institution that is responsible for ushering in the atomic age with the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction—that discovered cancer was a genetic disease—and that first posited the existence of black holes, to name just a few.

From the Judges

Well-designed piece that tackles an extremely broad idea. We liked the use of photo icons, the fast facts and examples, and the checkerboard color palettes drawn from the main photos. Overall the design was top-notch, and the copy was concise and easy to read.