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Using our new brand narrative in the UAL prospectus

Front and back cover of UG prospectus, with the back cover showing a student painting the piece that’s shown on the front cover. The words on the front cover read “Wanted: scribblers, worldbuilders, dreamers, reimaginers” while the back cover reads “remixers, changers, inspirers, you.”
  • Written byBrand and Strategy team
  • Published date 21 March 2025
Front and back cover of UG prospectus, with the back cover showing a student painting the piece that’s shown on the front cover. The words on the front cover read “Wanted: scribblers, worldbuilders, dreamers, reimaginers” while the back cover reads “remixers, changers, inspirers, you.”
Front and back cover of the undergraduate prospectus, 2025, UAL | Design: Spy Studio

Since 2023, our Student Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions team (SMRA) has been collaborating with design agency Spy Studio from our Creative Services Roster to create our marketing materials for undergraduate, postgraduate and pre-degree students.

The undergraduate (UG) prospectus and postgraduate (PG) guide are some of our most significant, essential marketing projects, evolving each year to reflect changes in our offerings. For the 2026/27 prospectus and PG guide, SMRA also incorporated our new brand narrative.

Here’s how SMRA and Spy used our brand system to bring the new prospectus and PG guide to life.

The brief

The primary objective of SMRA’s design brief was to develop a concept that

  • enhances the student journey by developing consistent visual and verbal messaging to be used across campaigns and printed recruitment materials.
  • is flexible enough for future adaptations.
  • is adaptable for 4 distinct audiences: pre-degree, undergraduate, postgraduate and UAL Online.
  • connects with our brand messaging.

While the 2024/25 prospectus had 18 covers to represent the wide array of Courses offered, the 2026/27 prospectus sought to showcase the uniqueness of our offer and the diversity of our community by featuring just a single student and their work — a huge challenge considering we teach over 200 Courses across different levels of study.

Double page spread of UG prospectus showing our Showcase offer, with a mockup of a Showcase profile shown on a laptop screen on the left page, set against a colourful background of a painting and a small white box with a QR code in the bottom left corner that reads “Discover inspiring graduate work on UAL Showcase”. The heading on the right page reads “UAL Showcase” and the body copy is: Showcase is a brilliant opportunity to make connections with employers and creative collaborators. UAL students can upload their work to the site in their final term. Their work will be promoted for a year after graduation. For our students, it represents the end of one journey and the start of another. For employers, it offers an exceptional directory of new creativity and fresh ideas. Here's how students benefit from uploading their work to Showcase: Visibility The site attracts around 1.5 million page views each year and is viewed in nearly every country in the world. If you don't have a website, you can easily share your Showcase profile with prospective employers and clients. Work opportunities Creative industry professionals use Showcase to source and hire UAL graduates. A recent survey revealed that a quarter of 2022/23 graduates had been contacted professionally by someone as a direct result of adding their work to Showcase. By uploading their work, students have: * landed jobs * received freelance commissions * sold their work * been discovered by galleries * secured solo shows * received press coverage. Marketing We promote Showcase throughout the year through paid and organic marketing campaigns. Teams across UAL often use Showcase to support their work. For example, many images in this prospectus are sourced from Showcase. Some teams also hire graduates off Showcase to commission them, offering more chances for paid creative work. There’s a black bar running across the spread at the bottom which reads ‘Your UAL’ and the page numbers, and the image credit on the left hand side: Background artwork by Davinia Clarke, 2024 BA (Hons) Illustration and Visual Media, London College of Communication, UAL | Photograph: Ben Turner.
The team dedicated a spread to our UAL Showcase offer for the first time.
Double page spread of PG guide showing the new design for entry requirements for courses within Architecture, spatial and interior design; Business & management and science; 3D design and product design; Accessories, footwear and jewellery; and Animation, interactive film and sound. Round icons next to the individual courses say whether a written task, a Portfolio or a Study proposal is required. Both bottom corners also have a QR code with text that reads ‘Find course information’.
Following research conducted through student focus groups, the new PG guide includes new visuals to communicate the entry requirements for each Course in an accessible way.

Working with the brand

Reflecting UAL’s breadth of creativity and study offer

Producing the prospectus is a cross-University collaboration, involving input from various UAL teams, Arts SU, College marketing teams and Course leaders.

Instead of showing UAL’s diversity through imagery alone, Spy decided to work on a joint pitch with copywriting agency Reed Words to reflect the University’s diverse student community and creativity through words and typography.

We knew the success of the campaign would come down to its ability to adapt to different outputs and audiences while staying true to UAL’s new brand narrative and messaging pillars.

— Will Stacey, Lead Designer at Spy Studio

“Together with Reed Words, we explored a range of copy ideas and visual executions using UAL’s brand typeface and colours," Will Stacy, Lead Designer at Spy Studio tells us.

"The ‘Wanted: You’ concept, was born out of UAL’s purpose ’the world needs creativity’, with the ever-changing word lists emphasising the diversity of students, academics, staff and London itself.”

To develop the word list, SMRA held student focus groups to brainstorm words that weren’t subject-specific and spoke to the broader concept of creativity – words like 'scribblers,' 'world builders,' 'dreamers' and 're-imaginers'.

“We always involve students in the process and ensure research informs our decisions. The 2025/26 prospectus introduced the ‘Wanted: you’ concept, which focus groups responded well to,” says Cat Mansfield, Student Recruitment Content Manager.

“However, they felt that the heavy use of black and white made the prospectus feel too serious and wanted to include more colours, as this reflects creativity for them. We really tried to make that change for the 2026/27 prospectuses, so you’ll see they’re much more colourful this time.”

Spread showing front and back cover of PG guide using the ‘Wanted: you’ campaign. The text on the left reads “Wanted: spacemakers, improvisers, worldbuilders, leaders” while the text on the right reads “visionaries, soundscapers, explorers, you.” The image on the left shows a person wearing a bioluminescent, blue suit while holding up a blue disk of the same material, covering up their face. The right image shows a hand taking a sample from an underwater plant.
A key priority for the brief was revising the PG guide based on research conducted through student focus groups.

Celebrating our diverse student community

The prospectus is a great opportunity to showcase as much new student work as possible, with a diverse range of images and stories sourced from UAL Showcase, our Image Library and in-person Shows.

“We created the campaign knowing that we wanted to showcase a variety of student work. The flexible typographic system stays strong and clear whether sitting comfortably alongside student imagery or simply used at scale with bold brand colours,” says Will.

To diversify the imagery further, the team reached out to our EDI team for input on a Black History Month photoshoot, photographing the work and creative processes of some of our Black students.

“We were keen to incorporate more diversity into our imagery by showing both the student and their work,” says Alexandra Kytka-Sharpe, Student Recruitment Content Assistant.

“You might see a piece created by a Black designer, but if the model is white, that’s all you focus on; you don’t get to see the Black designer behind it. We wanted to showcase diversity not only in the students featured but also in the creative work they produce.”

With this approach, the back cover features a student in the process of creating the artwork that’s shown on the front cover.

Unlike the 2025/26 prospectus, which required plain backgrounds for the images to ensure text legibility, the new prospectus places the word list in colourful bubbles, allowing the images to lead the design.

Double page spread of prospectus which reads out the first part of our brand narrative “University of the Arts London (UAL) generates and inspires the creativity the world needs for a better future. With curiosity, imagination and intent, we make work which creates lasting change for people and our planet.” on the left side, also including our messaging pillars listing our Colleges, our QS World Ranking, the fact that we’re no. 1 for student start-ups and that our students are from 140 countries. The Colleges pillar reads: UAL is formed of six Colleges with unique histories and identities: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion, Wimbledon College of Arts. We're also home to the UAL School of Pre-degree Studies and four Institutes, including the UAL Creative Computing Institute. Together, we're a community of makers, thinkers, pioneers and storytellers redesigning the future. We hope this prospectus inspires you to join us. The right page of the spread shows a quote from BA (Hons) Advertising student at London College of Communication Samuel Stanley who says “My lecturers are people who have been in the industry. They teach me what they do. It’s real-world experience being passed down to students.” The quote is layered on top of a photograph showing someone tie a model’s shoes.
The undergraduate prospectus and postgraduate guide include our new brand messaging and creatively incorporate our 6 messaging pillars.

Incorporating our new brand narrative

While the undergraduate prospectus already aligned with our messaging pillars – covering information about our Colleges and living and studying London – this year, the team also incorporated our new brand narrative.

“One of the main changes to the guide was redesigning the opening spread. We've used different approaches over the years but realised as a team and through the focus group that we needed something that communicated UAL’s essence in a simple and straightforward, yet inspiring way. The new brand narrative does a really good job of summarising UAL’s unique qualities in clear and accessible language,” says Alexandra.

The team also wanted to highlight some key points that draw audiences to UAL, such as our QS World Ranking as ‘second in the world for Art and Design’ and ‘Number one for student startups’.

Double page spread of PG guide highlighting our new brand narrative and messaging pillars. The top left corner includes the first section of our brand narrative, which reads: University of the Arts London (UAL) generates and inspires the creativity the world needs for a better future. With curiosity, imagination and intent, we make work which creates lasting change for people and our planet. There is an image of someone melding a piece of work, with a quote in an orange box by 2023 MA Art and Science student Nina Gonzalez-Park at Central Saint Martins that reads:
The PG guide incorporates our new brand narrative and several of our messaging pillars.
Double page spread showing our campus and city map in the UG and PG guide, including landmarks, transport links and parks. On the far left, it lists our Colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Camberwell; Central Saint Martins, King's Cross; Chelsea College of Arts, Pimlico; London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle; London College of Fashion, East Bank, Stratford and Wimbledon College of Arts, Wimbledon. Our additional sites: Elthorne Road, Archway; Wilson Road, Camberwell; and UAL School of Pre-degree Studies, Shepherd's Bush. Our Institutes: UAL Creative Computing Institute, multiple sites; Decolonising Arts Institute, Pimlico; Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute, Stratford; and AKO Storytelling Institute, High Holborn. It also lists our professional services at King’s Cross and High Holborn and our halls of residence: Emily Bowes Court, Sketch House, Wick Park, Stratford One, The Costume Store, Highline Building, Glassyard Building, 8 Portland House, Gardens House, Archwood House, Furzedown Student Village and Cedars Hall, and Your TRIBE Peckham.
Our city, our Colleges: Our campus map which shows off our Colleges and surrounding parks and transport links in the city is a creative way of communciating our messaging pillars visually.

Cat adds: “Even where we didn’t use the brand narrative, the pillars are reflected in the images and messaging throughout the prospectus. The ‘Our Colleges’ pillar, which describes us as ‘a community of makers, thinkers, pioneers, and storytellers redesigning the future,’ aligned beautifully with the word list and created a natural synergy.”

SMRA’s recruitment materials are a great example of how our messaging pillars aren’t always conveyed through words alone: the campus map at the end of the prospectus and PG guide offers a visual representation of the pillars ‘Our city’ and ‘Our Colleges’.

LCF brand narrative in prospectus placed in a white box on top of a 3D render of the LCF East Bank building, which reads: London College of Fashion is a world-leader in fashion design, media and business education; in boundary-pushing research where fashion intersects with science, engineering and technology; and in enterprise, where it partners with top brands and helps launch new businesses. In the left corner of the box, there’s a QR code and copy that reads ‘Find out more about the College here’.
Each College has their own brand idea and messaging: Here's how SMRA used the LCF brand idea in the UG prospectus.
The new brand narrative does a really good job of summarising UAL’s unique qualities in clear and accessible language.

— Alexandra Kytka-Sharpe, Student Recruitment Content Assistant

The result

“This might be the happiest I’ve ever been with a prospectus – and I’m always pretty happy with it! It’s come together so well through such a collaborative process. We all care deeply about the project and enjoy working on it each time,” says Cat.

“We had a really good experience working with Spy. They have a clear understanding of our brand, which has been invaluable. We were able to present them with our challenges and they delivered ideas that really captured the essence of the brand while staying within the guidelines. I’m thrilled with the vibrancy of the design and the students on the cover.”

“Sourcing images and stories by visiting the Shows made us feel even more connected to the University and the incredible work being produced, which added to our excitement about the material,” adds Alexandra.

“Working with the SMRA team over the last 2 years has been a pleasure. They really engaged with the concept from the first presentation and knowing their audiences so well helped to guide us in the right direction. They put in a lot of research time and reached out to some brilliant students that were featured on the prospectus covers. The project was an exciting one for us, being such a prominent campaign for UAL across all Colleges.”

— Will Stacey, Lead Designer at Spy Studio

The prospectus and PG guide have been distributed across our Colleges and will be handed out at higher education events such as UCAS fairs. UK-based prospective students interested in studying at UAL can also request a physical copy online.

Team credits

Content Team within Student Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions

  • Cat Mansfield, Student Recruitment Content Manager
  • Ellen Partridge, Student Recruitment Content Coordinator
  • Alexandra Kytka-Sharpe, Student Recruitment Content Assistant
  • Natalie Oldham, Content Production Coordinator

Spy Studio

  • Stephanie McDermott
  • Ben Duckett
  • Simon Clark
  • Will Stacey

Reed Words

  • Matt Brady
  • Sam Russell

Main photographers

  • Alys Tomlinson
  • Ben Turner

Thank you to all the students, staff and artists who contributed to our 2026/27 guides.

All featured images: 2026/27 Undergraduate prospectus and Postgraduate guide, 2024, UAL | Design: Spy Studio

Using our brand consistently helps us connect with our audiences, building awareness and understanding. Research has consistently shown that our strong brand and reputation is the number one reason students apply to UAL.

To learn more about how our brand helps tell the story of who we are and what we want to achieve, get in touch at brand@arts.ac.uk.

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