Logo and Prospectus Explanations

Feel free to let me know if I've missed anything or you think anything isn't clear

Logo explanation:

Our logo is designed to fit with almost everything about Lambeth College. The design shows the growth of yourself. It does this by presenting expanding sections that grow out from a central point. This is the same as we do as people, starting with who we are and adding extra knowledge and friends etc on to this.

The fact that the logo features a perfect circle which has been staggered and pushed out of symmetry is to demonstrate being part of the college but also individual at the same time. At college you are part of the student body and share its identity as a student but it is also the same time you begin to establish your own identity with your own style and opinions.

Moving away from the more conceptual side of the design the logo also represents the curves of the college (well the Clapham site anyway) if you look at where the curve of your roof bends over the side of your building to continue on to the ground it is almost identical to the curves on the left hand of the logo.

Prospectus explanation

The prospectus is the first line of persuasion for Lambeth College when attempting to entice new students. It is the thing they will take home after open nights to study and decide on. Therefore it should be something special; we are working off the value of being creative after all. Our prospectus helps to bring the feeling of fluidity and curves from the building and logo to the students when they first encounter the college so that from the instant they are introduced to the college they know the feel of it.

The design also reflects, just as the logo does, the building of the college. Our environment is one of the most important factors when it comes to education and Lambeth has a superb environment with a great building and natural views so this is reflected wherever possible in the branding to emphasise it. It’s far easier to have revelatory moments when you don’t hate your surroundings and that is at the core of our brand values.

On a more practical level each department is separated by colour or colour combinations. This is for the simple practical reason of making it easier to navigate through a large document so that prospective students don’t feel they are wasting their time. That is not something we want associated with a place that they are thinking of attending for the most important educational years of their lives.

Furthermore the coloured sections help to bring the feeling of individuality in to the prospectus. As a core value we are making this clear in the look of the document. Why should philosophy look the same as motorcycle maintenance? They are individual subjects so it is only right they are shown as such.

large banner test

After yesterdays meeting we tried to come up with interesting ways of visualising the graphical work so that it could be better appreciated, we cam up with a few ideas and a banner was one of those ideas. After meeting with the landscape architect today, it seemed like a good avenue to go down, so i have been doing some tests in 3ds max.
This is just a test to see how the banner might look, i have used the logo to illustrate how the banner and also the logo would flow in the real world.

I modified the techniques used in a tutorial on how to use reactor in 3ds max at: http://forcg.com/tutorials/dynamics/create-a-realistic-sails-with-3ds-max-and-reactor/

Advertising concept and rules etc.

Ditto as with tone of voice for weird formatting

Advertising Concept

Media

Media is how you choose to show your advert; this comes after you have your idea. It can be almost anyway, it can be traditional (posters and billboards), digital (on the internet or Facebook etc.) or it can be ambient (on bus stops or walls). It also includes things like television and radio but Lambeth will rarely if ever enter this realm so traditional, digital and ambient will be your staple diet.

Approach

Clarify your target market. This is the first thing you should do. You have to know their behaviour, their patterns, and their interests. If you want to appeal to people you must be able to think like they do. It should be easy; we have hundreds of case studies sitting in the building. Time spent watching what they do at times like lunch or as they arrive will be time well spent in the long run.

Know your objective; it will generally be to entice new students or to improve the college’s reputation. But if it is for a special occasion, say a college performance open to the public or an open day think what you are trying to show. Is it the students? Is it the building? Is it the feeling of Lambeth? It can be nearly anything but this must be clear when you start or you will get lost and produce beige adverts.

Remember that effectiveness is the keystone of good advertising. Don’t put an advert out to the public if it isn’t selling Lambeth College effectively. Test the advert and the ideas on students of the college. It’s the easiest way to get feedback.

Make our adverts fit with the tone of voice, it is vital. We are selling ourselves on being individual, creative and being a place of revelation. So why would we make adverts that are the same as every other college? Lambeth is unique so find ways of showing that, use surprising visuals or facts that nobody knew. Whatever you do never be mundane, this is what everyone is expecting from a college and it will not increase Lambeth’s standing.

Be clear about what you want to say when creating the advert and how you want to say it. This is the bones of an advert; if this isn’t clear then it will fall apart and be completely ineffective.

Never worry about looking stupid when coming up with the idea. It’s far better to look stupid when coming up with the idea with your colleauges than it is to look stupid putting out a bad idea to the public. What you think is stupid someone else may see a different way.

Try to make people smile. We are bombarded with images everyday so we become immune to their effect. Making people smiles is the first line for getting through this defence. Just the same as when meeting someone for the first time, a smile can go a long way. Or in this case, making them smile can go a long way.

Aim high with quality of the concept and execution, the British default is “meh, that’ll do” in this case it will not. We are selling the College and want it always to look at its best. An advert is like going to a party but for an idea. It’s not going to turn up in scruffy trainers and ripped trousers. Clichéd pictures of results students jumping up in the air with their grades are just not acceptable and are banned from now on.

Keep it simple. A good idea does not need to be dressed up. If you find yourself adding extra decoration that doesn’t need to be there then it is likely that the idea is not good enough.

Never say you are “the best”. Show your positive points by all means but be very careful about saying you are the best unless you can prove it (with something like a league table etc.) and even then it rarely makes for an interesting advert.

Concept

The concept is the soul of an advert. It is very much the gravity that everything else in the advert should be drawn towards. If everything on the advert is not linking up with the concept then you do not have an advert. You have a pretty poster.

The concept can be as simple saying why you believe somebody should come to Lambeth. But this is what every single college does and we want to be individual. Therefore it is better to think laterally rather than literally. Be specific, if you come to the conclusion that Lambeth can make your life easier by providing a good education then you have your concept. Lambeth makes life easier, it is then up to you how to execute this, you could simply write it (literal and very boring) or you could think up an interesting way to show it. Show the college as the things that make your life easier. Not slightly easier, like a washing machine. A lot easier like a pen or a pencil (lateral and already more interesting)

There are hundreds of concepts when it comes to a college so there is no reason to ever produce another advert again that shows students smiling whilst looking at a whiteboard. I went to college; nobody smiles that much looking at a whiteboard and students know this.

Tone of Voice & Copy Rules

Before we start, I don't know why this looks weird on here, something to do with copying from word in to Blogger causes the text to format wrongly, so there is bold where it shouldn't be and normal where it should be bold etc. Annie has a pdf so will be fine on the day.

Our tone of voice is a very important aspect of Lambeth College’s identity. It runs through everything from advertising to the prospectus to letters given to students. It manages to communicate the main points of our college without ever having to say them out loud.

A tone of voice is best thought of as body language for written text. The tone of voice for Lambeth College is based around our brand attributes. These are; creativity, revelation and individuality. Emphasise these points wherever possible.

Our tone of voice is to be clear, direct but still friendly. Write with the directness that a close friend would use when giving advice, to the point but never unwelcoming.

It is important when writing to ensure that clarity is one of our top priorities, misunderstandings lead to people and the college missing out. To achieve this there are a few simple points to follow which are outlined and described in this section.

Copy Rules

Clarity

Do not use five word when one will do, be brief, saying only the essentials with clear and concise sentences. If we add in unnecessary wording it can make the structure hard to follow and allows the audience to wander away from the information. Try your best never to use jargon. This only speeds up things if both author and reader know what it means, always assume that our reader is new to their course. If using jargon or overly technical language is absolutely unavoidable be sure to explain what is meant by the phrase or word.

Please never attempt to use street slang or text language in order to identify with students or prospective students. This does not make us look like a teenager. Instead we appear rather more like a parent who is trying too hard to fit in, which is very off putting. Teenagers naturally rebel against what their parents advise so why do we want to appear like that? Try to include human examples where possible. A paragraph written by a student adds more personality and ensures that writing does not become cold and overly authoritarian. However do not script this or tell the student what to write. This is easily spotted and never reflects positively on the college. A student saying “the college is great” will gain no new students.

Do’s and don’ts (for Annie, don’t write this in the prospectus; put them in a table or some wonderful info graphic. The lists are written with the don’t being a counterpart to the do, so approximate goes with ballpark as two examples of saying things in the right and wrong way.)

Jargon/slang/text language –

Do: Approximate, student, good, you too,

Don’t: Ballpark, target market, cool, u2 (unless talking about the Irish band),

Style

There is nothing wrong with using humour and it will usually add spice to otherwise dull text on some boring technical aspect of the course. Nevertheless be cautious not to try too hard or to be too casual. Lambeth College is still a place of learning and should appear as such but there is no reason a place of learning cannot have a fun side.

Be sure to engage the audience by saying things in an original way; try to catch them off guard. They have seen “we are a friendly college” a hundred times in any prospectus of any college. This will not interest them and we are selling ourselves on promoting individuality and creativity so try to be original.

Always be cautious not to appear patronising or condescending (even if this section of writing can appear that way).

Detail

It is easy to miss small details when creating large amounts of writing for a prospectus or letters for students but it is these details that often jump out on the page at a reader. So to avoid this make sure that we double or even triple check all text for grammar and spelling. Get different people to do this than the people that wrote it. Before we begin writing check that our software is set to English (United Kingdom) as by virtue of most software being American it is often default set to English (US).

Use paragraphs to build structure and add clarity to our writing. Bullet points can be interesting and are a good way of keeping the reader’s interest but too many make for a disjointed text which can be hard to follow. Sentences should be short. One thought, or point, per sentence is enough. In order to help the flow of the text abbreviations should be avoided where possible. Writing Hrs. Instead of hours is pointless, it is a few less characters to type and looks far uglier on the page. Abbreviations are only to be used where they are in common language use such as phone, photo or bye.

Underlining in text looks very messy and unprofessional. It is also very difficult to fit it in designed text without it looking downright ugly. So for emphasis use bold or italic text, but only use one or the other, never use both on the same word. Further to this do not use unnecessary punctuation marks such as exclamation points. These do not sit well in text and often make our writing look childish and immature. The exclamation point was originally used in plays to show someone laughing at their own joke and nobody ever likes the person who does that.

When writing numbers use the word for the number until we reach the number ten, after this use the numbers but low digit numbers just look out of place in text as a numeral rather than as a word. Also in statistics do not switch between fractions and percentages within a paragraph. If possible always use percentages as these are easier to understand for people who struggle with maths. If you do have to use fractions then use fractions throughout the paragraph.

Do’s Don’ts

Do: Hours, to be confirmed, emphasise like this or this, five, Humour, autumn

Don’t: Hrs. TBC. never this or this, 5, Humor, Fall

Headlines

Headlines are there to communicate information on things such as course title or campus. We view this type of information very quickly and it can often be easy to miss it if it is not made clear. Therefore our headlines should be clear and relevant. There is no point using a headline if it is not there to communicate anything, it is usually best to leave the header empty with just a block of colour in the situation.

As with copy we should be unexpected with our headlines. This is the writing that is meant to grab the student’s attention so take them by surprise, people will often remember a Sun newspaper headline for being humorous or unexpected, but how many people can remember a Telegraph headline five years later?

However be careful not to appear aloof or superior to our students. They are equal to the college not inferior to it.

Do’s & Don’ts

Do: An Outstanding College

Don’t: Ofsted recently gave Lambeth College a rating of 1 meaning that we are now classed as an outstanding college.

Minutes

Presence

• Landscape design architect
• Hannah
• Frazer
• Joshua
• Adel
• Alex
• Ayodeji

Activities

we talk through our progress with the landscape design architect. He gave us an idea of approaching the project. One of which was how to integrate 3d design into our project by for example making a 3d model of the Lambeth building and then adding a banner to make everything more animated.we also spoke of the avatar, we taught of having them wear t.shirt with our logo designs or ID cards around their necks.

Time Length

2:22pm -3:30pm

Bus Shelter

Example of how the design of the building could be used in the surrounding environment
Images: Iron Man 2 and TFL's Together for London.