Back at the start of the summer, many of you popped by the Templeman Library to help us shape our updated look and feel for the University. Since then we’ve been beavering away turning your feedback into a final proposition that we feel really celebrates where we are now and where we want to be in the future. At Kent, we stand for ambition – and I can’t wait to share the first set of new creative with all of you from Thursday next week at the Staff Conference.
Throughout recent weeks we’ve also been gathering more and more information on how key audiences respond to our new approach. At the brand roadshow itself, around 70% of staff and students felt that our ‘ambition’ positioning would help us be more confident, with a clear majority feeling that ‘Option 1’ (below) – based around bold visuals and a ‘k’ brand device – was authentic to Kent and would help us stand out from the crowd. This was backed up by ongoing positive feedback from prospective students and a high-performing ‘teaser’ campaign which some of you may have seen both online and on buses around our campuses.
It has been a hive of activity as we pull together all the different creative assets we need in the new brand. Striking photography is key feature of our new direction, so we’ve run fresh shoots with students across our campuses. More of these will follow soon so watch this space! Our website will have a makeover, including a new homepage that brings the different themes of our Kent 2025 Strategy to life. Watch out also for a new brand video launching during the Vice-Chancellor’s Welcome and Introduction next week – showcasing what we are all about across our audiences and sparking inspiration for where ambition can take us.
This will be supported by a much wider rollout across the University in the weeks and months to come. In-depth brand guidelines have been drawn up to help people with communicating consistently, including new tone of voice guidelines for different audiences. We’re about to finalise a brand toolkit with all the day-to-day things we all need, like PowerPoint presentations, email signatures, digital and print templates and merchandise. Everything from the signs at the entrance to campus to tote bags and mugs are on the list – lots of which you will start to see from Thursday next week.
It’s been a huge undertaking but worth every effort when you see the modern, sharp and dynamic visual identity we’ve been able to develop – plus the huge potential the central theme of ‘ambition’ offers in how we embody the brand to talk about the amazing things that happen at Kent. As we move past next week, the wider work to roll this out team by team will begin in earnest. In the meantime, I can’t wait for everyone to get their first sight of an exciting new direction for the University.
Nell McCreadie | Assistant Director, MORA
