Learning for life

Oswestry School Learning for life

Founded in 1407, Oswestry School is one of the oldest non-denominational schools in the country and sits on the edge of the attractive market town of Oswestry, Shropshire, on the border of England and Wales. It is set in 50 acres of its own grounds and boasts some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain on its doorstep.

Absolute were approached by Oswestry School to create a new responsive website and, shortly after, to take a look at their branding and positioning as a whole. We completed a full brand overhaul to improve the school's positioning within the market, ensuring that they stayed ahead of the competition.

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Sector

  • Education

Services

Deliverables

  • Location Photography
  • Web Design
  • Web Development
The result of the brand development after Absolute carried out a full brand audit

Learning for Life

We started the process with a full brand audit of all existing brand collateral, which from an outsiders point-of-view was looking a bit disjointed and confusing. We believed that the ethos and values were being promoted well by the staff and students, but were not being conveyed through the brand, so our first task was to develop the existing ‘We learn not for school, but for life.’ motto. Using this we created key messages to use throughout the various communication channels.

Absolute ensured the positioning of the school was being conveyed through the brand
An element of the copywriting Absolute provided to help with Oswestry's tone of voice
Absolute picked out suitable photographs for use on the website to provide a more consistent art directional style
Another associated element of the copywriting Absolute provided to help with the school's tone of voice

Bold & Confident

The next stage of the project was to create the right assets to give the brand a cohesive look. We started by exploring colours that fitted in with the introduction of new school uniforms and integrated them with the schools traditional colour palette. Choosing typography for a school that’s over 600 years old was always going to be a challenge, but we found a good contemporary serif that worked both in print and online at various sizes and weights.

Absolute created brand guidelines for Oswestry School
The brand guidelines integrated Oswestry's traditional colour palette

Digital Character

The new responsive website site needed to promote the schools ethos, with the emphasis on people and places. We created a visually interactive site that is easy to navigate and informative without being too content heavy. We included a social wall to pull through live Twitter and Facebook feeds, to encourage parents and pupils to use the main site more. We also built a fully responsive website, without losing too many of the rich features when viewed on mobile devices.

The suite of printed publications are much admired and the innovative website makes a real impact.

Julian Noad, Headmaster
Absolute developed a sophisticated calendar module for the school's events
We provided unique graphics and assets for use on the website to add character
Photography retouching for consistency across the website

Supporting Literature

Alongside the website, Absolute designed a suite of promotional literature. We created individual brochures, each focussing on an area of the school so that the Oswestry marketing team could tailor the relevant information and send out to prospective parents in a bespoke folder. Working with commissioned photography, and as part of the brand development, we created a set of illustrations to emphasise key messages throughout the brochures. These were also integrated into the digital designs to give the brand a cohesive look and feel.

 We created individual brochures, each focusing on an area of the school
Absolute designed a suite of promotional literature
The Oswestry marketing team could tailor the relevant information and send out to prospective parents in a bespoke folder
An example spread from one of the printed brochures
Another example of a unique spread from the brochures