Tori Willis
Senior Graphic Designer
Enrollment Marketing and Communications
Although I didn't attend OU, this is part of my OU legacy. Everything I get to create for OU is made with the goal of showcasing the community, opportunity, and sense of belonging that can be found here on campus, and the work I’ve done for the new Jones Family Welcome Center feels like a culmination of that. It’s very rewarding to be even a small part of this beautiful space, and to know that the art and designs I made will encourage everyone who visits campus to feel welcomed and valued for years to come.
In January 2025, I was able to tour the construction site of the Jones Family Welcome Center, allowing me to start piecing together ideas for wall art and designs throughout the buildings. Since the building was still under renovation with steel beams and brick, we didn't have actual photos of the space to work from, so I had to envision the final production based on elevations drawings and concept art provided by our architectural team. Together, we went through several rounds of brainstorming illustrations before landing on the Clock Tower and the Bizzell Memorial Library.
I started by sketching layouts in Procreate. Once the layouts were approved, I moved into Adobe Illustrator since these drawings would be scaled up to massive sizes to cover entire walls. There was so much testing and file prep before the beginning of the final drawings because I had never created anything at this large of a scale. After so much trial and error, I created a custom brush in Illustrator that behaved like a physical pencil. It allowed me to create smaller, lighter marks with less pressure and wider, darker marks with more. That range in pressure was crucial in making the illustration appear hand-drawn.
The final art visitors see in the building today were printed onto huge vinyl sheets in multiple pieces that had to be lined up perfectly by the install team!
This display was designed to showcase the stories and accomplishments of some of the incredible students at OU. The quote pages and photos were all designed with the goal of featuring students across backgrounds, majors, and interests. My team’s copywriter pulled some great quotes from students across campus and provided me with the photos I used in each design.
I designed these panels in Adobe InDesign to highlight a handful of OU’s accomplished alumni who are making a difference in their community. We added QR codes for easy access to each alum’s story online at Sooner Stories, where visitors can learn more about who they are and what they do. My team’s copywriter interviewed the alums, wrote their stories, and built the webpages where visitors can read more about them.
Upstairs, the State Song design features sprigs of wheat swaying in the wind. It's a callback to the first lines of the song. Across from it, the OU Chant design features the Oklahoma state bird, a scissortail, in flight.
