Growing together in the City

Watermark Design, one of Warwickshire’s leading design agencies, is to be the creative force behind the latest campaign to attract students to City College in Coventry. Watermark Design were one of six agencies pitching for this prestigious piece of work and were delighted that their design concepts were chosen for the latest campaign. Watermark Design, who are held in high regard within Warwickshire’s education sector, already play a major part in promoting colleges, universities and training centres. The campaign, which is to be launched this summer, will carry the strap-line “Our city, your college, growing together” which symbolises the development of both the college and students together. As well as the strapline, Watermark Design has developed a branded support theme which incorporates giant plant pots symbolising ‘growing’.

City College, which is a large general further education college, has 14,000 students, 600 permanent staff and an annual turnover of £23 million. The college, which is based on three main sites, is currently going through a period of redevelopment. After five years of planning and eighteen months of construction, phase one of the new College has now been completed. The new College represents one of the largest capital investments in further education in the City’s history. Phase two will open in 2008 when all remaining courses will be transferred to the new state-of-the-art facilities.

In order to attract more students to this new pioneering college, a number of highly distinctive graphic design concepts will be used on leaflets, posters and newsletters. Giant posters will be displayed in bus shelters as well as on buses in and around the city. For maximum exposure and visibility, posters will also frame huge billboards placed in strategic places within Coventry. Local radio campaigns using a funky beat will also be used to reinforce the key messages of the summer campaign, ‘Let’s Grow Together in the City’

A road-show will begin in August and will feature a number of competitions aimed at raising awareness of the college. “Spot the Pot” will feature a number of giant plant pots in bright colours placed around the city with the public trying to guess their location. The winner of each pot will get to keep the plant inside as their prize. The seven “C’s” challenge will invite people to call the colleges radio station ‘Synergy FM’ to say ‘City College Coventry Crazy Cress Creation Competition’ as quickly as possible. The person that says the tongue twister the quickest whilst still being understandable will win a singing dancing flower. The Crazy Cress Competition, using the theme “Grow your cress, grow with us”, will invite people to grow cress in the craziest way they can think of. Packets of seeds will be given out during the road-show and the winner of the best design will receive Homebase vouchers.

Sally Pinfold, Marketing Manager for City College stated, “We are delighted to have appointed Watermark Design to work with us on this prestigious campaign. With new premises and a new campaign to increase student levels, we’re confident that our investment will reap huge rewards for both the college and the further education of our students”.

Barry Chadwick, Managing and Creative Director at Watermark Design stated, “Developing a strong and consistent branded image is fundamental for the success of any organisation. Our extensive experience and creativity in design will not only help raise awareness of City College in attracting students but will also help the college successfully thrive as a business. We look forward to unveiling our design concepts over the summer months”.

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