VCU news

By Tom Gresham and Rick Boyko

The Virginia Commonwealth University Adcenter, which has become one of the leading graduate advertising programs in the country by constantly adapting to the ever-changing advertising industry, is evolving again.

The Adcenter – ranked the No. 1 graduate advertising program in the country by Creativitymagazine in 2005 and one of the world's 60 best Design Schools by BusinessWeekmagazine in 2007 – today announces it is changing its name to the VCU Brandcenter. In addition, the Brandcenter has moved into a striking new home, a distinctive Clive Wilkinson-designed building that promotes creativity and collaboration.

"Since its infancy, the Brandcenter has distinguished itself by meeting and exceeding the needs of the entire advertising and branding community," said VCU President Eugene P. Trani. "Its name change is another indication of how the program continues to reshape advertising and branding education."

Added Rick Boyko, director of the VCU Brandcenter: "Today's advertising industry has evolved into the business of developing a brand's total communication, influencing everything from strategic plans and message content to the creation of advertising, the retail environment, packaging, Web sites, word-of-mouth messaging and public relations. It is this change in marketing communications that drove us to put brand building front and center in everything we do."

Founded in 1996, the VCU Brandcenter is the only graduate program in advertising to combine business-oriented communications strategy and brand management tactics with leading-edge marketing creativity.  The Brandcenter quickly has built a reputation for delivering some of the best, brightest and most well-rounded advertising and marketing communications graduates.

The two-year graduate program's 180 students are enrolled in one of four tracks leading to a Master of Science degree: Art Direction, Copywriting, Creative Brand Management and Communications Strategy. Since its inception, the VCU Brandcenter has graduated more than 500 students. The Brandcenter is focused on delivering more diversity to the industry with this year's student body comprising 38 percent minorities and 51 percent women.

"Although our name has changed, the caliber of our graduates remains constant," said Boyko, who is the former chief creative officer North America and co-president of Ogilvy & Mather before arriving at the VCU Brandcenter in 2003. "We are still a unique creative graduate program housed within the largest state university in Virginia – and we're a center where diverse disciplines work together in collaboration to solve business problems."

Added Mike Hughes, president and creative director of The Martin Agency in Richmond and a board member of the VCU Brandcenter: "Almost all of us in advertising, marketing or executive management are in the business of building and protecting brands. At a time when the Internet levels the playing field, putting all the same marketing information and tools at everyone's fingertips, the great business leaders in the years ahead will be the men and women who figure out how to think and act creatively when taking their brands into the marketplace. The school's heritage is in creativity; its focus is on building brands. That's the perfect combination for today's challenging marketing environment."

The VCU Brandcenter's new home – a historic 27,000-square-foot building in VCU's new Monroe Park Campus Addition in Richmond – was designed by the internationally renowned architect Clive Wilkinson, who's designed spaces for Google, Disney Store Kingdom and advertising agencies such as TBWA/Chiat/Day (Los Angeles), Mother (London) and JWT (New York). For this project, he partnered with Richmond-based Baskervill.

"To ensure that our core competency always will be creativity and collaboration, our students must be in a progressive environment," Boyko said. "We're proud that our new home is just that – an environment that looks and feels different and makes our students wonder if their work deserves the shelter of this new space."