STUDENTS at Warrington & Vale Royal College helped deliver a new logo for a local baker following a live design brief.
As the town’s ‘Career College’, Warrington & Vale Royal College prides itself on providing all students with meaningful industry encounters, to enhance their skills and knowledge as well as giving them valuable exposure to employers within their chosen sector.
As part of this commitment, Level 3 Graphic Design & Illustration students were challenged to create a new logo for local baker and cupcake specialist Jessica Kemp, owner of Mama Cupcake.
Jessica collaborated with the subject leader for graphic design, Ellie Strowger, to create a brief for the students that would simulate a real client project with set requirements, while still allowing them to use their creativity to envision what would work for the Mama Cupcake brand.
Students on the college’s graphic design courses have access to top-range equipment, working on cutting-edge Apple Macs with the latest industry-standard software to ensure their work is completed to a professional standard. Using Jessica’s social media pages for inspiration, as well as each having a consultation with the client, students set to work creating potential logos that would feature on Mama Cupcake’s packaging and promotional materials.
The range and calibre of designs presented to Jessica went above and beyond her expectations, making the choice of a new logo a challenge. She said:
“Any one of these logos could have been the one I chose because they were all of such high quality and I feel like they all responded to my requirements really well. In the end it came down to preference, and I feel like Alex’s logo embodied both my brand and my personality. I am so pleased and can’t wait to start using it.”
The winning logo design
Alex Lin, a former student of St Nicholas Catholic High School, created the winning logo, which features a classic three-tier wedding cake, luxurious rose gold accents and Mama Cupcake’s slogan “baked with love.” Alex hopes to become an illustrator in the future, with this project making an excellent addition to his professional portfolio, as well as having Jessica as his first client testimonial.
To show her gratitude for all of the student’s hard work, Jessica came to the Warrington campus with bags of baked Christmas goodies, including delicious winter berry cupcakes and intricately decorated shortbread cookies. During the visit, all students were given constructive feedback on their work, while Jessica and Alex worked together on the final tweaks to the design to ensure it was ready to launch.
The college works with over 500 businesses at present, but is always on the lookout for businesses both locally and nationally that would like to get involved with giving students invaluable industry opportunities. Jessica highly recommended her experience, saying: “This has been a fantastic project both for the students and for my business. The work I was presented with was beyond what I would have expected from any agency. I have already told friends who are also business owners not to pass up on the opportunity to work with the college.”
If you are an employer looking for a way to inspire the next generation of skilled professionals, then please contact the college’s Industry Placement Team by emailing [email protected].
