Abstract Despite the efficacy of vaccines, there is a growing need for novel vaccine adjuvants that can drive type-1 immunity, a response governed by antigen presenting cells (APCs). Current methods used to evaluate efficacy of novel adjuvants fail to consider the spatiotemporal events of antigen presentation that dictate the development of cellular immunity. Understanding how adjuvants affect the initial development of type-1 immunity would result in the design of more effective adjuvants. We hypothesized that adjuvants induce unique spatiotemporal patterns within lymph nodes that differ based on the extent to which an adjuvant drains to the LN. These patterns are then responsible for shaping the adaptive immune response. We tested this hypothesis by converting alum, a depot-forming adjuvant that remained at the site of inoculation, into nanoparticles (np) that enter the lymphatics and drained to the LN after vaccination. The size and charge of the np alum was measured through dynamic light scattering and zeta potential. The immunostimulatory effects of both alum and np alum were measured through inflammasome activation of bone marrow-derived macrophages. The two adjuvant formulations were then used to examine the influence of depot-forming alum versus lymph-node (LN) draining alum on skin-resident dendritic cell migration to the LN. The number of migratory DCs in the LN after vaccination was measured by flow cytometry. Next, we made use of live ex vivo lymph node slices to measure chemokine secretion in the LN by ELISA and to observe patterns of DC migration through widefield microscopy. This study illustrates the impact of the physical properties of an adjuvant in shaping the early stages of the adaptive immune response.