Gettysburg College

A BIG first impression on a 4K video wall

Behind-the-scenes video shoot in one of Gettysburg's student labs

Gettysburg College is a nationally-recognized liberal arts college that attracts a highly selective and diverse body of students from across the United States and the world. Located amidst the famous Civil War battlefields in south-central Pennsylvania, the college is known for its academic rigor, and strives to graduate good global citizens who enter the workforce with a combinatory education enriched by many different subjects and viewpoints.

Gettysburg is always focused on optimizing the student experience, from the point a high school student starts the college search process to the moment they toss their caps. Aside from the institution’s website, a primary first impression a prospective student has is their in-person campus visit. And we all know what they say about first impressions—you only get one shot. Enter the new Fourjay Welcome Center.

What we did

  • Research
  • Content Strategy
  • Design & Branding
  • Implementation support
  • Media production

Industry

  • Higher Education

Fourjay Welcome Center under construction at Eisenhower House

In 2017, construction began on the Fourjay Welcome Center, a new wing of Eisenhower House (named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower) and home to Gettysburg’s Office of Admissions. Dedicated in May of 2018, the Fourjay Center is a space where Gettysburg can graciously invite visitors to feel welcome and comfortable, and allows staff to utilize the latest technology to tell the Gettysburg College story. Within the Fourjay Center is the Chamberlain Room, a spacious reception room that features a state-of-the-art Planar Clarity Matrix LCD video wall. The wall is capable of displaying just about any type of content, in stunning 4K resolution.

Now the hard part: what to display on the video wall itself.

In a creative partnership with Expressway Productions, Happy Cog crafted the content strategy, voiceover scripts and production, motion graphics, and map animations for three unique video experiences with the goal to provide prospective students and their parents an immersive preview of the many benefits a liberal arts education at Gettysburg provides. The videos convey the many positive aspects of student life, academics, the campus and surrounding area, as well as student outcomes.

Behind the scenes at the on-campus video shoot with Expressway Productions

wall-1

Custom animated infographics created for the videos

“This Place”

This video was created as a pre-tour/information session introduction to Gettysburg, energizing potential students and their parents by featuring the vibrant campus community and its surrounds, the benefits of a liberal arts education, and effectively depicting what it will actually be like to attend Gettysburg.

This video introduces potential students and their parents to Gettysburg


“Do Great Work”

This video was created as a post-tour/information session wrap-up, inspiring potential students and their parents by focusing on outcomes and continuing the great work they’ll undertake if they choose Gettysburg.

This video is meant to provide a final impression during an on-campus visit


“Overview”

A looping, immersive overview video experience incorporating newly-created and pre-existing video and photography, animation, and graphics. This video is displayed throughout the day when there are no active tours or other moments of direct engagement. The right side of the video periodically takes advantage of a unique angled section of the video wall installation, which led us to create orientation flyovers (animated with Google Earth) and animated statistics for that space.

This video is displayed throughout the day when there are no active tours or other moments of direct engagement