Yale UniversityWhiteboard

Problem

Yale University was handing incoming students a brochure to explain three of the most consequential decisions of their academic career: what liberal arts means, how core requirements work, and how to select classes. Students were still confused. They were arriving with questions that suggested the written format wasn't cutting through — the material felt abstract, dense, and a little intimidating for someone about to start their first semester. Yale needed a way to make these ideas feel approachable before students ever set foot on campus.

Decision

Yale provided the scripts and voice-over recordings — my job was to translate that content into something a new student would actually want to watch. I developed the visual concept for all three videos: a cartoon-style, hand-drawn whiteboard animation series designed to be warm, accessible, and just engaging enough to hold attention through material that could easily feel like homework. Every frame was drawn by hand using physical whiteboard markers — no digital illustration, no AI-assisted production. The challenge was finding the right visual language to make academic structures feel like something you could actually picture yourself navigating.

Outcome

Yale was pleased with all three videos, and incoming students responded with noticeably better comprehension of the requirements and expectations ahead of them — the confusion that had followed the brochure approach gave way to genuine clarity. The series demonstrated that the right visual medium can do what a well-written document sometimes can't: meet students where they are, and make the unfamiliar feel manageable.