If you work in a higher education setting, chances are you’re going to need to address a younger audience. Take a look around at what is connecting with your target demographic, what resonates with them, most likely isn’t what resonates with you, no matter how “in-touch” you feel you are.

If you take a minute to look around, you can find inspiration from the strangest places, try the Cartoon Network. Their late night schedule called Adult Swim has a target audience of 18 to 34 year-olds (sounds like a familiar demographic).
Combining sophisticated graphics and an adult-oriented sense of humor (as much as is allowable on basic cable) their ratings have soared to astronomical heights; currently they are rated number one in their time-slot on basic cable.

Taking a cue from some of their top rated cartoons, the designers at Adult Swim have given the majority of their imagery a distinct Japanese slant. Not surprising since Anime (Japanese Animation) has been popular across the board with multiple demographics.

More interestingly, however, the designers have recently begun dabbling in mixing lithograph images from the 50’s with gritty urban scenes to create sophisticated yet upsetting vignettes that harken back to the era of the atomic bomb.

Find it strange that Millennials are connecting to these images? Think about it, Baby-Boomers are the most pervasive force in these Millennials’ lives, there is bound to be some back-lash towards this force.

I’ll leave you with that, feel free to interpret that how you would like.

“Adult Swim” and the images on this page © 2006 Cartoon Network. A Time Warner Company.