Here are two examples of messaging in action on a homepage, first from Middlebury’s website then from Hampshire’s. Prospective students and their families were the primary audience. Like all later-stage “applied” messaging, these concepts and words were gleaned from two essential documents: audience research to understand the perspectives and aspirations of those young people we were trying to reach, and the college’s strategic plan articulating the institution’s future direction and pursuits. Additional source material came from the collage of everyday voices of the community expressed through dozens of films, social posts, speeches, and writings—key to understanding the human spirit of the place.