Norwich University of the Arts had developed some thinking around their ‘employability skills matrix initiative’, specific to creative sector employment. NUA wanted to educate students and recent graduates in ten important ‘soft skills’ in order to increase their employability. In today’s competitive workplace, being nice is as important as being ace in your chosen discipline.
In order to increase awareness of this support and to make it as engaging and unpatronising as possible (students are a tough crowd to reach) NUA needed a unique brand for it as well as a suite of materials to deliver it.
This is where we came in. We christened the ‘employability skills matrix initiative’ as ‘PROFILE’ and designed an elegant logo with a subtle nod to the NUA brand (the ‘i’ in PROFILE is the same angle as the ’N’ in NUA’s identity).
The name PROFILE was an instant hit with everyone from the students to the vice-chancellor. NUA liked both its allusion to professionalism and the filing of evidence students will collect to prove they have fully understood and acted upon each of the ten soft skills.
On top of all of that positive feedback, we have been commissioned to create a selection of innovative materials to deliver PROFILE. We have already delivered it as a card game (given away at this year’s graduation ceremony) and the cards will also be used as part of a board game we’ve designed, ready for the new academic year. And you won’t be surprised to learn that for an audience of digital-savvy students, we have also created a PROFILE web app too.
“We knew what we needed to communicate, but the magic that Fine brought to it was to come up with the Profile brand. Bringing together the concepts of ‘Professional’ and ‘File’ into one beautifully designed logo which is a clear member of the distinctive NUA family. For a community of creative people, brand design is everything! So we have been thrilled to work with A Fine Studio's branding as the project has developed.”
