This was a campaign to inform students of what financial options were available to them through a program called Basic Needs.  We took the photos in front of different murals around the campus, which helped add a lot of character to all of the otherwise simple portraits.  The ads ran on campus buses, cafeterias, news papers and also digitally, so a number of formats was needed for each image.
This campaign received a 2021 CASE Award of Excellence.  The Circle of Excellence Awards showcase outstanding work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising, and marketing. The awards are open to professionals working at CASE member colleges, universities, independent schools and their affiliated nonprofits around the world.
Client: University of California, Santa Cruz
Product: Print and digital ad campaign
Above are some of the different variations applied to the same image.  Templates were then applied to each of the 5 images in all their different variations.
The photos were taken professionally, so I only did a light adjustments of color and skin tones and some light blemish fixing to make sure everyone really popped out of the ads.  Here is a before and after version of this image.