In both the classroom and on campus, Long Road is unique in our region. Their culture is one of success, they are unashamedly passionate about what they do and the academic standards are exceptionally high. They take students from all academic, social and cultural backgrounds and deliver an exceptional learning experience in an atmosphere where talent at any level is nurtured and cultural diversity is celebrated. Strong messages.
The commission for Smith was to narrow down these distinctive characteristics and apply them across a range of materials including the new college prospectus.
A phased approach was taken and First stage was definition and audit; which involved engaging with all key stakeholder groups, one-to-one and group interviews and a comprehensive market audit and analysis. This led to a summary report which formed the basis of the creative brief.
The creative response
What stood out amongst the findings was its how Long Road had its own disinct personality and ethos. It treated students as adults, it is a place where students are given the freedom and responsibility to manage and direct their own studies. To reflect this, we sought to position the college as a step up from school – kind of uni-lite. Smith conceived the strapline and campaign theme: ‘ Move on up’ which we felt would appeal to students of any academic level – but fit with the college’s ambitious ethos and inclusive admissions criteria.
Editorially Smith took the previous years prospectus and totally stripped it out, rationalising content and reordering information into sections that better reflected a prospective student’s selection criteria. This also enabled us to bring to the fore the colleges important individual and distinctive messages, and its own personality. Each section within the prospectus sets up a dialogue with the reader. Each section is ‘headed up’ with a studio photograph and quote from a prospective student – outlining the main ambitions, hopes, potential concerns and selection criteria of students questioned in our research. These were answered through messages and information outlining how Long Road offered each different person an opportunity to ‘move on up’.
The careful selection of students to photographically lead these marketing materials delivers a more outgoing, confident and modern personality whilst also reflecting the broad cross-section of students at the college. Greater pace and contrast were added by creating separate sections with different and distinct looks – a front end which included a solely photographic section showcasing the colleges modern facilities, to-camera portraits to accompany case studies, reportage photography to reflect everyday study and portraits; this was separated from a cool, type-only course information section positioned at the back of the prospectus.
Heather Chambers, Assistant Principal and principal point of contact on the project said of working with Smith or the solution: “. Smith identified the strengths of Long Road Sixth Form College by talking to staff, students and parents. They checked their findings at every stage and tested the messages with students and colleagues. They were meticulous in planning the design, briefed staff at every stage and shared their expertise with students by running workshops and discussion sessions. They shared their ideas and plans clearly and helped the College "own" the new messages. When planning the photography they had clear plans for each image and directed the photography to provide complementary shots to the identifed messages.
It has been a pleasure to work with Smith and we are delighted with both the prospectus and short form which were produced .
For more information on Smith contact Adrian Kimpton by any one of the following means:
T: 01223 309399
M: 0797 697 7281
E: adrian@smithltd.co.uk
W: www.smithltd.co.uk
Smith is a graphic design company.