Category: higher education

Coolest university website ever?

Web designers, the gauntlet has been thrown.

<i>Screen shot from Zokei University's web campaign, via Adverblog.</i>
Screen shot from Zokei University's web campaign, via Adverblog.

According to Adverblog, this website — part of a recruitment campaign for Tokyo’s Zokei University, an art and design school — is the coolest university website ever. (Hat tip to @ConversationAge for the link.)

Quoth Adverblog:

The website looks exactly like a[n] 8-bit videogame, and I can’t imagine a better way to drive recruitment for an art and design school. If the website is so fresh and “brave”, you can definitely expect their approach to education to be as fresh and open.

It’s interesting, no doubt. But is it cool? It may be big in Japan, but would it work in the West?

What do you think?

It’s an honor just to be nominated

Voting is now closed. Thanks for your support!

In my haste to unplug (mostly) for an extended weekend, I forgot to mention that I’ve been nominated to be an International Brand Master, a competition sponsored by Educational Marketing Group as part of EMG’s Brand Managers Summit 2009.

I’m one of three finalists for the distinction. I’m up against Catherine “Punky” Scruggs of Strayer University and Jenny Beckman-Wong of RMIT in Australia. You have until 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 8, to cast your vote.

If I weren’t in the running, I’d vote for anyone nicknamed “Punky” in a heartbeat. No disrespect to Jenny Beckman-Wong. That a nickname would influence my decision is just an indication of how shallow and uninformed a voter I am. So I am doing the right thing and abstaining.

I’d be lying to say I don’t care who wins. But also, as the headline says, it’s an honor just to be nominated.