Publication Design: Amicus 3
Now in its third edition, AMICUS, the Fowler School of Law’s annual report magazine, is a showcase of the rich pagentry of law school life. The few design tweaks to this year’s edition offer the reader an even better view of the school, highlighting the most impactful areas of the school’s community efforts over the last year.
CLIENT:
Chapman University Fowler School of Law
PROJECT:
Design & Editorial for a law school annual report, third edition
At heart, AMICUS is an intimate glimpse into the life of a thriving law school in Southern California. This publication has a number of audiences: Prospective students, school alumni, honored guests, competing law schools, visiting academics, the Orange County legal community and the broader Southern California judiciary. This report is a showcase of academic pageantry, scholastic achievement, competitive success and the vibrant student spirit so characteristic of the school.
I’m proud to share that the first edition of AMICUS won a merit award at the 40th Annual Educational Advertising Awards in 2025. This unique piece of publication design is unusual in that it serves many different audiences, from prospective to current students, to alumni and beyond; it has a unique design format in that it is not a view book and not a formal report, but somehow a bit of both; and it has a premium “hand” appeal, suggestive of the quality one might expect from a law school of Fowler’s caliber.
Its sister publication, Jurist, is a bare-bones showcase of the school’s scholarship, with a very specific focus on faculty publications, presentations, appointments and achievements. AMICUS delves a little deeper and shares the “nuts and bolts” that make the school a competitive prospect for its entering classes, especially with honest, data-driven accounts of bar passage, career placement and prospects, competitive student advocacy, admissions demographics and student life. AMICUS provides graduating students with a yearbook, alumni with a running record of the fortunes of their alma mater, the school’s admissions office with a recruitment touchpoint, prospective students with the widest possible view of the school they hope to join, and special guests and visitors with a unique and engaging keepsake from the community they have engaged with.
I drove the entire project from concept through layout and design, photography and image editing, copy editing, writing, proofreading and printing.
Read AMICUS 3 here.
