Ben Kimmel

Ben KimmelBen KimmelBen Kimmel

Ben Kimmel

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The Duke Centennial

In 1924 Benjamin Duke signed the indenture of trust creating the Duke Endowment and with it, Duke University.

We spent several years preparing and 18 months celebrating the achievement.

Visit 100.duke

The work

Our team was a kind of informal Centennial planning group. We had to look at all aspects of branding and marketing. The hardest part was determining how to tell the story of 100 years, without saying everything that mattered. I think it came together well.

My role

I led the digital team which meant helping guide the writing team and working closely with the multimedia team. There was the design and branding and voice and timeline and event planning and social engagement and budgeting and... strategic planning. 

The digital experience is available at 100.duke.edu, so let's look at one of the larger projects

Centennial Signage - Planning

Early in the Centennial planning we worked across the university and health system to gather ideas for the celebration. One (of many) we were tasked with was installation of branded signage across Duke.

Each yellow dot is a light pole. The green, blue and pink dots represent the poles (by type) where we wanted to install banners. Locations and number continued to change as stakeholder and budgetary needs were considered.

Multiple rounds of design, going through several groups for approval, resolved with six designs in two sizes.

Location plots were created to show installers exactly which banner would go on which pole.

Printed banners were delivered to the High Voltage team who are equipped to work with the light poles. The 210 banners took a week to install.

Signage work included design, budget and vendor/facilities coordination to install garage and building treatments across campus.

Centennial Signage - In Place

The iconic Chapel Drive with the Duke Chapel at the top of the hill. Centennial banners line the dri

The number of parking garages to have the Centennial logo installs, and the size of some of the window treatments, was reduced more than once, due to budget constraints.

A large 100 appears across 3 floors of windows with the blue sky in the background

Duke's Dhama dance group were one of the many acts at the 1.9.24, Centennial Kickoff event.

Dancers in traditional Indian costume dance in front of a large Duke Centennial logo.

The renaming of the east campus student center was just one of the many Centennial  events during the Centennial year.

Two 100 banners hang between columns outside the East Student Union, in the middle the banner reads

This is actually a mock up - so you can see how accurate we tried to be for the installers. I've got the actual picture somewhere.

Centennial 100s and Centennial Logo on the glass entrance to Duke's Bryan Center
An illuminated Duke centennial logo on large screen with people pointing into the air silhouetted in
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