Washington State University launched the public phase of its $1 billion capital campaign during the depths of the Great Recession of the late 2000s, immediately following several rounds of downsizing its in-house marketing communications team. After the previous consulting partner firm parted ways, the Recraft team was tasked with ideating an original visual pattern and message for the campaign’s existing tagline: The World Needs Big Ideas.

The results were the “Wave the Flag” campaign seen here: by associating the Washington State banner with geographically-dispersed landmarks, the campaign highlighted the institution’s real-world impact on every region of the state of Washington.

By its conclusion in 2015, the campaign inspired thousands of new gifts totaling $1.065 billion.