It Took a Forest to Make This Forest
A behind-the-scenes look at how (and why) a community of creators built an entire Wake Forest world out of paper.
Character is 100% human.
So are the hands that created our 30-second commercial.
Leadership and character are deeply human concepts. They are also the foundation of a national character education movement that Wake Forest is leading.
As our marketing and communications team explored creative ways to amplify the Program for Leadership and Character, we considered this: What if how we make the commercial reflects the values we want to celebrate?
That simple idea led to an unexpected and ambitious project: Build an entire Wake Forest world made of paper. Create it by hand. And bring it to life as a community.
Watch the commercial
The Story Behind the Story
Our 30-second commercial tells two stories.
One is the story of Leadership and Character at Wake Forest. The other is the story behind the commercial’s creation – the hands that designed it, engineered it, assembled it and brought it to life.
Both stories share the same message: Wake Forest shapes people. Just as character is formed through intentionality, patience and care, so was every frame of this commercial.
Watch the behind-the-scenes documentary
My challenge to the team was to move beyond the typical university commercial, featuring a montage of campus beauty shots, and instead weave a story around a single differentiator.
Every school claims that its culture and values drive a sense of purpose. At Wake Forest, it happens to be true, and only Wake Forest can claim that its commitment to developing leaders of character and integrity has led to a nationwide movement in higher education.
The final commercial embodies the sense of purpose with which the team approached the project. It was an ambitious work of head, hand and heart, requiring us to learn and adapt at each step. I am grateful to the University partners who supported the project, and proud of what the team produced.
Brett Eaton, Vice President for Communications
Why paper?
The medium is the message.
As our University Marketing and Communications team began to seriously consider the prospect of building a paper Wake Forest world, the strength of our creative concept grew.
A handcrafted paper world subtly communicates the message that Wake Forest shapes people.
Every magnolia tree, every campus building, every paper-and-glue person would be carefully assembled – layer by layer – with intentionality, care and human ingenuity. Those qualities are at the heart of Wake Forest’s culture.
In the voiceover script, the individual exploring our paper world is inspired by purpose. The immersive journey they take through a layered Wake Forest landscape reinforces the foundation of our institutional mission, that:
- character is formed over time,
- leadership is built intentionally and
- education is a process of multi-faceted development.
From the Roots Up
Our creative exploratory started with a storyboard.
From there, it moved to sketches, prototypes and isolating the design elements.
Our team took up residence at WakerSpace, where the tools of our trade became laser cutters, reams of colored paper, gridded cutting mats, glue bottles, rulers, wooden dowels and mini magnets.
Important creative decisions were made about the spectrum of green in the trees and the frond-iness of the grass, whether the stonework of the Wake Forest Arch should be etched or laser-cut, the botanical accuracy of the magnolia blossom design, and the various profile angles needed for each paper person on the journey.
Especially challenging was the engineering feat required to “split” a paper Reynolda Hall so that our camera lens and miniature explorer could appear to pass through it.
As our Wake Forest world took shape, designers and videographers experimented with scale, lighting, element placement and the speed of the motorized drum that powered the rotation of our Forest.
The three-month production process for this 30-second message was old-school, hands-on and energized by purpose.
Many Trees, One Forest
On a small campus (especially a Forest), interesting ideas spread like wildfire.
Building our paper Wake Forest became a collective effort. Colleagues and campus partners contributed ideas, expertise, tools and countless hours of careful work. And our campus came together with a shared purpose.
Facilities and Campus Services
Every Wake Forester knows that Facilities makes our world go around.
A talented Facilities team conjured, designed and built the custom motorized drum that spins our paper Wake Forest world. True to form, they also made the rig “presentation-worthy” with stained cabinet-grade paneling on either side.
WakerSpace
WakerSpace became the production home for our project. Staff members trained the creative team on laser cutters and provided the space, tools and support needed for weeks of cutting, gluing, creasing and assembling.
The Program for Leadership and Character
The ad was inspired by Wake Forest’s Educating Character Initiative, which is housed within the Program for Leadership and Character. Our colleagues in Leadership and Character became thinking partners and were instrumental in distilling and shaping our message.
The Office of Sustainability
In the Forest, we love trees – and we believe in using their paper responsibly. In collaboration with the Office of Sustainability and WakerSpace, our creative team is upcycling leftover paper from this project – giving it a second life as students, faculty and staff use it for their creative work.
Crafters from across campus
Colleagues with crafting skills generously volunteered their time in WakerSpace and helped us crease, glue and assemble our way to a paper Forest.
Voice talent
From custom rigging to cut-paper crafting, our commercial was exclusively an in-house enterprise. Our video team sampled a range of voices from across campus before selecting a Wake Forest colleague to serve as our voice talent.
By the Numbers
We didn’t count every paper cut. But we did keep track of a few numbers:
2,568
Total number of paper pieces cut
17
Number of pieces for each human figure
55
Number of paper pieces in each magnolia tree
357
Hours logged in WakerSpace
296
Total count of characters produced
240
Hours the Facilities team spent to create the motorized drum
135
Weight of the drum in pounds
147
Number of staff log-ins to WakerSpace
159
Total number of trees produced
Questions and Answers
Did you use AI to create this video?
While we are pro-innovation and new technological frontiers, Wake Forest’s University Marketing and Communications team, with help from Facilities and WakerSpace staff, designed, cut, assembled and recorded all of the elements for this video. No AI was used.
Why not tell the story of real Wake Forest people to celebrate human creativity and craftsmanship?
For this video, the medium is the message, communicating a journey that is distinctly Wake Forest while also being universal and memorable in 30 seconds.
What did it cost Wake Forest to produce this ad?
Had we outsourced the project, it might have cost as much as $250,000. Through the combined artistry of staff in University Marketing and Communications, WakerSpace and Facilities – and the work of many hands – we produced the video in-house for the cost of internal staff time, paper supplies, and Facilities’ labor and materials.
