The brief that was set to us at the beginning of October was to come up with an identity for our University buildings or campus (though there is still a lot of arguments over whether we are actually buildings/campus). After months of research and development and a few dead end ideas I decided I didn't want to slap a brand onto the campus. One main reason was that in the University brand guidelines it forbids anyone creating a sub-brand under the main UOC one, secondly I was getting bored of logo design as I have been doing it in pretty much all of my other modules so I thought a good plan of action was to think of where the current university image was being promoted and tackle that. The thing that it wittled down to was the UCAS fairs that the university has a stand at to draw in the prospective students that are leaving college. As if there wasn't enough competition to get students in the past, now with the latest figures showing that the rise in tuition fees has made applications dramatically drop, I think making yourself stand out from the crowd is needed more than ever.
After looking at stands from other universities as well as the ones that Chester has used in the past (cringe-worthy comes to mind) I decided that I wanted to show what it was like to be a creative student on Kingsway. How that coming to do one of the course listed under Art and Design in Chester would mean you are choosing more than just a degree, but a lifestyle you'll be living for the 3 years of your course and that you'll remember for the rest of your life.
The stand is called; The Kingsway Experience. Totally nothing original or mindblowing but when you have a 3 meter cube of space that is sandwiched together next to others with thousands of students passing in seconds, you can't be too wordy with the information that you are displaying to them. It has to stand out and be remembered, so that is why I styled my stand to be primarily black and white with the main colours coming from the title and the photographs that are displayed to show the important things that people need to know of an institution before choosing it; about the city, the campus, the courses, graduation and one big focus FRIENDS, pictures to get across just how friendly Kingsway is, it's basically one big creative community.
Here are a few pics showing the progress of my stand as well as the ALMOST finished one;
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| One of the intial mock ups for the stand. Research by design? Maybe... |
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| Everything cut out by hand to give a sketchy look (so time consuming...) |
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| A few hiccups along the way... Yes it did all collapse and fall down. Better it happening weeks before deadline though! |
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| Just have the iMac to set up now! |
I have a little booklet that is like a taster prospectus to tell people a little about what the University and city has to offer that I need to get printed and made up now but all of the design side of things is done. This will also be placed on my stand as I feel as though to hand out numerous amounts of propectus' to students is a huge waste of resources other than just costing the University a lot. Most people have access to the internet now, why not grab a mini booklet from the UOC stand and then if interested go onto their website and save so much waste? Also having experienced the UCAS fairs as a college student not having a clue which university I wanted to go to, I left numerous fairs with so many prospectus' I wanted to call a taxi home. Another benefit of my taster booklet? I think so!
(And I do think that this setup would look a lot cleaner/better if it were in an actual UCAS 3m x 3m stand with flush walls, but I suppose this stilll gets my idea across, I hope)
I will keep the blog updated when the stand is complete and when the booklets are done.
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