Repositioning a graphic design school as the industry’s leading catalyst for change
Shillington has always been known as the original graphic design bootcamp, with rave reviews and inspiring tales of creative transformation from anyone passing through their doors. Offering full-time and part-time short course study options, they’ve produced over 11,000 industry-ready designers, and wowed those who have employed them, since 1997.
Following some internal restructuring, and with fresh competition emerging, they came to me to refresh their brand strategy and help define their unique space in the design education landscape.
‘Can I really become a graphic designer in 3 months?’
Despite years of success stories and a truly unique offering, Shillington lacked clear positioning and increasingly struggled to differentiate and build trust with their ideal audience. A lack of understanding in their approach and fears of ‘But don’t I need a graphic design degree?’ and ‘Can I really become a graphic designer in three months?’ holding back potential new enrollments.
My goal was to uncover their unique voice and realign their strategy to take a more confident step forward to meet evolving audience expectations in a rapidly changing industry.
Going against the grain
Through a series of workshops with key stakeholders, team interviews, customer research, and market analysis, it became clear that Shillington’s unique perspective goes distinctly against the grain in an evolving industry. The outdated ‘long, hard road’ approach of traditional education coupled with the ‘pay your dues’ beliefs of many design industry naysayers who are resistant to change means that today’s aspiring creatives are held down by outdated barriers to creative careers.
The Shillington Method
I uncovered that the brand’s core strength is their framework; The Shillington Method. A unique combination of immersive learning and design thinking methodology that uniquely unlocks design thinking from the get-go and provides their students with relevant and fully comprehensive industry-readiness in an unparalleled amount of time.
However, aside from relying on word of mouth, this distinct proposition wasn’t reflected in their current brand expression, and therefore not reaching their desired audience. Instead, the brand was stuck in an unnecessary loop of convincing, comparing, and competing against outdated forms of design education when in fact they already existed in a category entirely of their own. They just needed the brand clarity to confidently plant their flag there.
The brand was stuck in an unnecessary loop of convincing, comparing, and competing against outdated forms of design education when in fact they already existed in a category entirely of their own. They just needed the brand clarity to confidently plant their flag there.
Real skills, in real time, for real careers
I helped the brand to define their strategic foundations and confidently step forward with a crystal clear Why, What, and How.
Shillington is here to break down outdated barriers to creative careers. They aim to lead the change in modern design education so that ambitious, aspiring creatives are empowered to transform their futures and lead the industry forward. They do it through smarter, faster, and more practical design education that unlocks creativity and design thinking from day one. Real skills, in real-time, for real careers.
This clearly defined purpose and vision for change also helped them to gain clarity on their desired target audience. By being clear on their vision they can authentically serve a like-minded audience and naturally align with ambitious, self-driven individuals who are ready to break free from outdated career paths.
Design your future
Working alongside their in-house creative team, these strategic foundations were brought to life by defining a distinct brand personality that would allow Shillington to confidently embody their strategy. A brand personality archetype mix, the Rebel-Catalyst, was defined to allow the team to align behind their brand as a human with real goals, desires, values, strengths, and weaknesses. I then set the foundations of a verbal identity and created a new messaging playbook structured around key voice attributes of challenging the norms, transformative optimism, and modern wisdom.
before
after
Jack Trotman, Managing Director at Shillington
“As a design school that teaches branding, it's funny how hard it can be to step back and see our own clearly, but Hilary helped us do just that. She gave us the space and perspective to get out of the day-to-day and view Shillington through the eyes of the people who matter most: our students”
The strategy roadmap
To ensure clarity in the strategy’s implementation and rollout, I provided a thorough handover and comprehensive brand strategy roadmap to align the team and guide rollout across key touchpoints and channels, future campaigns and collaborations, as well as training or brand guidelines development.
