Paving a pathway to the future for one of Australia's most well known organisations.

Are you accessing your potential? For individuals and organisations, it is so important to develop your unique talents and abilities – and to grow. But sometimes, it can be a tricky path to navigate without someone to guide you.

It all started with a chance encounter in the middle of a Sydney downpour. As the CEO of UAC took shelter from the rain, he mentioned to a fellow umbrella dweller that he was after a new business card. Often, it’s the little things . . . A simple almost throwaway remark about a business card turned into an exciting brand journey for UAC. University Admissions Centre (UAC) is an NSW-based organisation that provides services based on a centralised admissions system for students applying to universities in NSW and the ACT. Its core purpose: to protect the integrity of learning and higher education in Australia.

Our Approach

We took our first steps together, engaging with UAC senior management to define a clear brand strategy. We quickly discovered that UAC believes in a fairer and more equitable means of accessing higher education, and a process that is more rigorous and valuable to both students and universities: one that recognises both talent and potential that can become an inspiration for others in our communities. Their thinking and content were already there. Our role was to listen and then work on capturing the UAC brand in a comprehensive, engaging format. Using insights from our workshop discussions, we were able to draft a full-length brand strategy document, including beliefs, value propositions and brand purpose, amongst others. For the marketing team, we also put together a brand-on-a-page – an invaluable tool for communicating key information at a glance.

But it’s all very well knowing who you are; you also need to know how to tell your story. Or two stories, in this instance, catering to UAC’s different audiences: students and universities. Building on a Tone of Voice workshop with UAC senior management, we established a set of guidelines on ‘How to speak UAC’ with three main aims: To Inform, To Inspire and To Support. UAC speak is revealed as human, inspirational, knowledgeable and caring, and the guide provides handy tips for getting into character by adopting these four traits. We also provided clear definitions of UAC tone and language and a set of sliding scales showing how to adapt both to different audiences and communication channels.

What do you think of the new UAC logo? Click here to let us know!

On the visual side, our team put their creative energy into designing a logo that represents UAC’s brand. The result is a dynamic logo with a clearly defined pathway that invites individuals to embark on a new journey through UAC – to access opportunity and fulfil their potential. We opted to refresh the existing colour palette, which is closely associated with the brand, combining midnight blue, lime and charcoal grey with pops of secondary colour. The logo is accompanied by typography that is bold, modern and clearly legible in all sizes. We then applied the new design to an extensive suite of online and print material, including uniforms and merchandise, corporate signage, iconography, letterheads, compliments slips . . . and business cards, of course!

The Result

By helping individuals to reach their fullest potential, UAC benefits everyone. Students benefit from being able to make the most informed choices of study and university. Universities benefit from students who have been rigorously assessed, who thrive on their chosen course both personally and academically and go on to lead fulfilling lives. We, in turn, are proud to have assisted UAC in accessing their own potential – creating a credible, recognisable brand that appeals to a varied audience.