Compliance Graphic Design is my passion

The NCAA recruiting dead period started last Wednesday and lasts until April 5, so communication between coaches and recruits is going to be limited.

That means the focus in the college basketball world will be strictly on the Final Four, and for good reason. But I’d like to shift the focus to something else — something I feel is more important.

It boils down to one question: Why are University Compliance Offices so bad at graphic design? Here are the worst 5:

5. VCU Rams

This blank white background with just text is a juvenile look, but it does a good job of passing along information. The font for “@VCURAMSRules” is very questionable.

4. Mercer Bears

The white text on a powerpoint background with a Mercer logo in the bottom right corner. This simply has very little effort and still looks poor. A 6th grader could’ve made a similar image to this.

3. Cincinnati Bearcats

It’s very simple, but the picture in the background makes the text uncomfortable to read with so many different dark colors in the chosen picture. The picture they chose also had to be stretched vertically to fit the dimensions.

2. Evansville Aces

The worst part of this, by far, is the font — the odd curve in the top left text, the border on the text, and the coloring splatter in the “Not Permissible/Permissible” text creates for a terrible start. I am confused by the hashtag #AcesAces. At least the spades as bullet points saves it a little bit.

1. Belmont Bruins

No your computer screen doesn’t need to be wiped. It is just the background of the picture. The background looks like a piece of paper that had water spilled on it and it is infuriating, which led me to making this the worst compliance picture sent out on Twitter.