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Prospectus designed by Optima wins Silver at HEIST Awards 2010

By Jayne, Creative Director on 28 May 2010 | Category: Optima 0 comments

University of Lincoln’s 2010 Undergraduate Prospectus, designed by Optima, scoops a HEIST award for Education Marketing. Pictured: Stuart Davis and Jayne Waistell from Optima, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sam Clark (holding award) and Louise Belfield from University of Lincoln and Simon Shaw Optima's Managing Director.

The 20^th Annual HEIST awards took place in Manchester last night, celebrating and rewarding innovation and professionalism in Higher Education Marketing in the UK. Some 430 representatives from colleges and universities from around the country were in attendance on the evening, where awards under 12 categories were announced. The evening was hosted by Dame Kelly Holmes, twice Olympic Gold medal winner at the impressive Palace Hotel in the centre of the city.

Optima were pleased to accompany the University of Lincoln who entered the 2010 undergraduate prospectus, which Optima designed, in the Best Higher Education prospectus award. Some 24 Universities were ‘shortlisted’ for this so we were absolutely delighted that it scooped a silver award. The University of Leicester were also awarded a silver, the Royal Agricultural College a bronze and gold went to the University of Birmingham.

The award was testament to the huge amount of effort that went into the design of this document. We completely re-invented the format which included restructuring the course section and specified a new size (B5) which offered the University considerable cost savings. This is the first time the university have entered these awards in which they have to submit significant evidence against SMART objectives. Their submission displayed how the document had outperformed many of their goals: attendance at Open Days was up 58% (48% above target); the average number of prospectuses used at higher education recruitment fairs in 2009-10 increased by 20.1% (10% above target; applications for 2010 entry currently are up +27% compared to 2009 entry (12% above target) and firm accepts are up 11.3%. The prospectus was delivered on time for the first bulk mailing and HE fairs and cost considerably less than the previous year’s document.

The University undertook student feedback as part of its submission and it is great to hear from the prospectus users how well they think the design has worked:

“The prospectus offered me excellent details about the courses and has helped me really understand what I want to do in the future. The prospectus is set out well and you can quickly get to the information you need. The colour coding of faculty areas helps with this. The course fact file for each entry helps me to be able to compare courses especially the entry requirements. I like the photos at the front of the prospectus of the current students as it makes Lincoln look friendly and relaxed.”

“A very impressive cover – attractive without being overpowering.”

“The colour coding is good as it makes flicking through the prospectus easy.”

“It’s easy to navigate around and find out what you need to know.”

“The section breaks are a nice addition – they break the flow of the copy throughout.”

“I like having the course requirements in a box, as that’s what people look for first.”

“The prospectus is clearly set out and easy to use.”

Optima won the tender for this prospectus in a creative pitch. It was the 10^th prospectus we have produced in the 13 years of working with the University and as Creative Director, it is a project I always get a buzz out of working on each year. It is something that I try to get the whole team get involved in and we always try a different approach in what we present each year, whilst building on the successful elements of the previous document. It is great to hear such positive feedback from the students who still seem to value a printed prospectus in addition to the information they can find available about the University online.

The HEIST award came on the back of the other great news yesterday that Optima had been placed at 85 in the Design Week Top 100 Designers, leapfrogging 22 places from our last year’s position, just outside the league table, at 106. See Simon’s blog for more information on this.