Graphic Communication students make their creative mark on campus with student-space rebrand

If a picture paints a thousand words, two students from the University of Northampton have spoken volumes by welcoming the challenge to rebrand one of their own student spaces on campus.

The Mezzanine, located just above The Market restaurant, was last year rebranded and reinvigorated as ‘The Mezz’, offering additional seating and board games donated by staff and students. The Mezz offers a warm and relaxed break-out space open to students 24/7.

At the core of this redesign was Chloe Trusler and Jasmine Whitelock, two third-year Graphic Communication Design students at the University of Northampton who collaboratively took on the task of using their creative flair to ignite the space with a new identity.

“Our brief was to make the space a more inviting social space for students to meet, play games, listen to music or just socialise” explains Chloe.

“In developing the final branding, I incorporated gaming-inspired visuals to mirror the fundamental purpose of the space. You’ll notice the chess-style background and game piece icons on the outcomes, highlighting the essence of the space.

“Personally, I was pleased with the playful nature of the project and how effectively it was conveyed in the final design. Jasmine and I collaborated seamlessly, with our initial concepts blending together well.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my involvement in the project, from collaborating with others to the actual creative process. The support from UON staff made a significant difference, and effective communication played a key role in facilitating this collaboration.”

Jasmine adds: “I was really inspired by designs I recently saw in Spain and recent emerging trends within the design space. The use of bold, colourful geometric gradient patterns sought to represent the diversity at UON and make sure it was noticed in such a busy space.

“Seeing the final design come to life on the walls of campus was great – I was really happy to see a design I collaborated on be real and have a purpose. Overall, the experience was enjoyable and gave me a useful insight on how to work on a budget, deadline and with design restrictions. It’s great to walk into The Market and now see our own designs on the wall!”

UON’s Environment Advisor, Emma Stone set the project brief, and celebrated the final design revealed for The Mezz: “Jasmine and Chloe delivered an excellent design for a wall graphic used in one of the student social areas of the university. They interpreted our brief and added their own creativity and ideas to produce several concepts for us to choose from.

“Both students were very receptive to suggested changes until we reached the final design. They collaborated with us on deadlines and always achieved them, most times before the deadline. It is great to see our student’s work in pride of place on the wall and I wouldn’t hesitate in asking them both to design more graphics for us in the future.”

Find out more about studying Graphic Communication Design at the University of Northampton.