Leeds City College

Whether it’s volunteering to deliver student talks, personal development courses, sponsoring student events or work-placements, Biskit has always enjoyed working with the education sector.

So when we were asked to look at a branding project with Leeds City College we were delighted.

The word ‘college’ sounds quite small, but make no mistake, Leeds City College is big.

With over 10,000 students, 1100 staff, multiple campuses and brands within the group, it’s a huge organisation.

Our brand brief was split two fold: engage with key stakeholders to capture the essence of what Leeds City College means, and work with their marketing team to translate this into a brand identity that could be delivered on campus. Secondly, our task was to work with their senior team to identify a brand for the overall group company, that could be utilised on high profile projects and initiatives.

Working directly with the Chief Executive and Marketing Director, Biskit created a roadmap for the project, that would take into account the views of all key stakeholders, and translate this into a clear brand identity, complete with action plans that could be applied on campus.

With any brand, it’s always about getting team input, and taking people with you on the journey.

Cue working with the senior teams in every faculty, the executive and non-executive board, students, employers/local government, plus organising brand workshops with all 1100 staff (facilitated by nominated departmental leaders).

Just what did the college mean to its stakeholders? How could this translate into a brand identity, and what was needed to achieve this brand promise in practice.

Working on projects like this can be fun, challenging, energising and frustrating in equal measure, due to the mixture of views, timescales and attitudes. But ultimately the outcomes can be hugely rewarding, especially when new ideas are stimulated with highly engaged groups.

We have fond memories in particular of the day we organised workshops across 4 campuses for over 1100 staff. Watching the team leaders use the materials we provided, then run the sessions, gathering the feedback and summarising the key points was inspirational.

The power to change is within every company, sometimes it’s about giving the right people a platform to speak from.

As the project came to a close, we were especially excited to see creative designs coming together for how the brand could look, from full scale window graphics, through to brochures, logos and even themed events.

At the end of the project we felt as though this was a job well done. Not only had we engaged all main stakeholders in their view of the Leeds City College brand, but we had also opened up the discussion about what was needed to underpin its delivery, and taken their team along with us on the journey.