College students give training pledge a Boost

The pledge, which forms part of the King's Lynn's Town Deal, brings together a unique partnership of local organisations – with leadership and support from Norfolk County Council and the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk – to transform the prospects of young people in the town.

This pledge will ensure that more than 400 young people facing the most significant barriers to accessing learning and work are able to recognise their talents and realise their potential, while providing a support framework that will increase the skills within the local workforce.

As part of the project, young people were given the opportunity to come up with a new name and associated logo replacing the rather clunky King's Lynn Youth and Retraining Pledge.

Lisa Taylor, Skills partnership project manager at Norfolk County Council, approached the College of West Anglia with a view to working collaboratively with the L3 Extended Diploma Graphic Design students. Lisa and local designer Max Gill, briefed the students to develop a brand identity for the project.

The identity needed to reflect the values and aims of the project as well as connecting with the young people being supported and other interested stake-holders. The logo design outcome needed to work across a range of different applications and uses such as flyers, posters, different types of social media platforms, business cards, email banners, and merchandise.

An interesting feature of this project has been that, following the briefing by the client, a methodology was adopted by the Year 1 and Year 2 Graphic Design students whereby they shared their individual design explorations and progress through a shared on-line platform (padlet.com). This facilitated the presenting and sharing of ideas and progress in real time in one place. Both designers and clients could simultaneously review ideas, resulting in a culture of critiquing and discussion through the evolution of the work creating a very ‘democratic’ design space and collaborative ethos.

All the students had the opportunity to present their ideas to the client and receive valuable feedback. The best designs entered into a ‘run-off’ for more focussed design development.

• All Year 1 and Year 2 L3 Extended Diploma Graphic Design students work on brief
• Run-off students: Year 1:- Jed King, Megan Mayes and Toby Rickard. Year 2:- Michelle Tibbs and Zac McAlpine.
• Winning design: Zac McAlpine.

Following this, one logotype design, ‘boost’ was selected as the winning design that is now being fully resolved into the brand identity the students were briefed to produce.  This logo and brand has already appeared on postcards at the Mayors Business Awards earlier this month.

Clyde Dunn, Course Director L3 Extended Diploma in Graphic Design, said: “This was a great opportunity for our students, who were able to gain invaluable experience of working in a ‘real-world’ environment, as well as honing their skills as emerging designers.

"The logotype ‘boost’ that has come from their hard work is the culmination of a thorough design and creative process and it is a fitting and appropriate brand identity for this important local initiative aiming to support young people in King's Lynn.

"I believe the strength of the final design has been arrived at through a combination of creativity and a keen design awareness by the students, as well as appropriate direction and support from college staff, Lisa Taylor and her team, and local designer Max Gill who provided guidance and feedback over Padlet.

"I also believe that using Padlet from the beginning of this project provided good architecture to support a wide range of contributors over time, facilitate on-going dialogue among all stakeholders, and make an appropriate creative space for our young designers. This has encouraged a collaborative ethos which is so important in the creative industries workplace these young people aspire to join.”

Lisa Taylor, Skills Partnership Project Manager at Norfolk County Council, said: "Working with the College of West Anglia was a great experience. It was fantastic to see how the students on Graphic Design courses grasped the opportunity to work on a live brief with employers. Their skills and approach were incredibly professional, shown through their ability to respond to feedback and continually improve their ideas to meet our needs, enabled them to produce business-ready designs for us to brand our project.

"We are grateful to the supportive staff and employers who engaged with this work to give King’s Lynn students the chance to showcase their skills at an industry level and we are grateful to the students who have given this project a real Boost!"

Boost is working with 15-30 year-olds in the King’s Lynn area, raising aspirations and engaging them in training to address skills gaps and support them into employment.

The project team are working with the College of West Anglia, schools, the Department of Work and Pensions, training providers, support organisations and employers to achieve this. Support is tailored to each individual’s needs, making it a unique approach.

Since its launch, 154 young people have been supported through the project, with many already in employment or engaged in training or work experience.

Support is available to 15-18 year-olds who are not in education or employment, 18-24 year-olds who are unemployed, and 18-30 year-olds who are in employment and wish to upskill.

Any employers looking to upskill their employees or any individuals in need of additional skills to progress can get in touch at boost@norfolk.gov.uk

The team are also seeking employers who are willing to support a young person with an employment opportunity, either through work experience, a talk, a tour or even a job. Get in touch boost@norfolk.gov.uk.