15 years of trust.
Strategy through to delivery.

Over fifteen years, we earned the trust of teams across the University. That gave us the responsibility and freedom to contribute to strategic decisions and carry them through to delivery.

We brought an outside perspective and the institutional understanding to make it useful – working across departments, supporting change and stepping into internal leadership when needed.

Working in partnership with Wolff Olins during the University’s rebrand, we contributed internally and externally and took responsibility for projects within the wider programme. The task was to help translate the brand’s direction into an experience people could recognise across the institution.

The ambition extended beyond reputation and red-brick heritage. The University needed to communicate what came next for students, researchers and business partners: thought-provoking ideas, innovation, learning and services relevant to their choices.

Change depended on trust across departments with different priorities, established ways of working and strong views about the institution’s future. We worked with internal teams and academic stakeholders to build understanding and bring people with us. Explaining the reasons for change helped secure participation and make the direction workable.

The identity change prompted student protests. Listening to concerns among those protesting revealed that the traditional identity represented prestige, heritage and standards – qualities people did not want to lose.

We devised an approach that gave both identities a role. The progressive identity could lead recruitment communications, while the traditional identity could provide an endorsement of heritage and quality.

We translated brand direction into guidelines, campaigns, publications, digital tools, events and spaces, helping teams apply it consistently across different audiences and departments.

Projects covered schools engagement, undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment, international students, campus facilities and services, open days and major events. The work also reached research institutes, individual schools and learning spaces.

We created and rolled out materials, refined design guidelines and established processes to benchmark quality.

During a transition between department heads, Lucy was engaged as a consultant and took on a leadership role within Design and Publications. Her immediate priorities were to stabilise the department and give the team a renewed sense of purpose and direction.

The remit was to help develop a modern, functioning agency within the University. It placed our strategic support inside the operation, combining leadership of the team with the wider partnership’s practical delivery.

As digital and mobile engagement evolved, the work extended into learning platforms, online resources and interactive experiences. Recorded lectures and reference materials supported access beyond the lecture room; games and gamification offered new ways to engage students.

Our strategic support also looked at how the University could use its own capabilities commercially. We helped develop consultancy offered through the University and explored how its on-campus design, publications and print infrastructure could serve smaller colleges and institutions outside direct competition.

The partnership connected strategic direction with the capacity to act: consistent brand delivery, support for departmental change and leadership during a transition. Donna Harris’s testimonial reflects the confidence built through that sustained involvement.