Birmingham Newman University ‘Be More’
How do you bring a University’s Vision & Strategy to life in a way that feels inspiring, human and relevant? Birmingham Newman asked us to help turn big strategic thinking into something staff and students could genuinely connect with. Working within the existing brand identity, we created a simple, ownable idea based on real insight - Be more - and communicated it through illustration-led storytelling across digital, film, website, direct mail...and more.
Birmingham Newman University is a values-led, teaching-focused institution with a strong sense of purpose and community. Having defined a clear and ambitious Vision & Strategy, the challenge was making it land. Not as a document. Not as words on a page. But as something people could feel, believe in and act on.
Our role was to bring that strategy to life without reinventing the brand. Instead, we worked with what was already there - finding new meaning through a distinctive and clever use of single-line illustrations. Simple, expressive and human, they became the visual thread that connected every touchpoint.
A new proposition became the heart of the work: Be more. An expression designed to inspire. It challenges the University to push further and think bigger, while clearly signalling to prospective students that Birmingham Newman University will empower them to become more too.
The idea was rolled out across digital communications, a refreshed website experience, an animated film and a direct mail campaign - all working together to turn strategy into story. The result was a cohesive, uplifting expression of the University’s ambition, brought to life in a way that felt modern, meaningful and unmistakably Birmingham Newman.