Developing the branding, communications and content strategy for BIMM (British Institute of Modern Music), Europe's leading music and creative arts university.
ABOUT BIMM
Extract from BIMM website:
BIMM Music Institute opens doors to the music industry. With seven colleges based in culturally vibrant cities across the UK, Ireland and Germany, we are Europe’s most connected music institute. For over 40 years we have been encouraging creative freedom and providing real-world industry experiences, thanks to our high-end facilities, incredible lecturers and unrivalled network of connections. With courses spanning the full spectrum of the music industry—from performance to business, from production to event management, from songwriting to marketing—each of our colleges presents an ecosystem in which students can realise ambitious projects within their discipline or in collaboration with others. We pride ourselves on our graduate success stories and on the transferable skills and professionalism our alumni display. BIMM Music Institute is part of BIMM University, a group of colleges that offers music, film and performing arts courses at diploma, degree and masters level.
THE BRIEF: FINDING BALANCE
We began working with BIMM at a time when they were transitioning from being an institute that focused solely on music, to becoming a university, with colleges including theatre and film schools, giving them a portfolio that spanned the whole of the creative industry. The project involved finding ways of balancing the benefits alongside the potential pitfalls in this transition – what it meant to have an offer that was broader than just music, what it meant to be understood as a university, not an institute. We needed to find ways to balance the individual and more ‘tribal’ aspects of each sector of the creative industry, with the benefits that come of being part of a wider network. We needed to preserve the positives of being a more ‘vocational’ type of institution – known for its real world connections to the industries that students wanted to join – with the academic kudos attached to what it meant to be becoming a university.
THE STRATEGY
A key part of the communications strategy was about focusing on the details of each of the individual segments of the creative industry. Imagery that you would only understand if you were really part of that world. Focusing on the people ‘behind’ the talent, not those on stage, but instead the producers, directors, sound technicians, lighting designers, etc. This approach served to both position the university as clearly part of the worlds it was looking to attract students towards, at the same time as maintaining the vocational lens on what it means to work in the creative and entertainment industry.
BRAND IDENTITY
The identity developed used a largely monochrome system and was deliberately understated in its tone, modern in its feeling, with a focus on quiet animation sequences and gentle brand touches designed to reflect the subtleties and the details of the sectors the university is active within.
TEAM
We worked on this project in partnership with creative director Mark Smith.