Shrewsbury College
Shrewsbury College is a further education establishment serving students in Shrewsbury and the wider Shropshire and Mid Wales area, it is focused on delivering high-quality education and supporting student achievement across diverse academic and vocational pathways.
The brief
The College has recently been rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, having received the highest grade for their contribution to local, regional, and national skills. The Ofsted report highlighted the college’s strong culture of high standards, skilled teaching, positive student behavior, and effective support systems.
About the further education sector in the UK and Shropshire:
The UK further education sector (which is primarily for 16-18 year olds) is still recovering to pre-pandemic levels of participation and is now offering more flexible, skills-focussed courses alongside traditional pathways to encourage more people to continue their education after finishing school. Regional divides mean that educational access to traditional and vocational education, apprenticeships and training remains uneven across the UK due to a range of economic, socio-economic and access issues.
Further education across Shropshire shows signs of resilience and innovation with a focus on skills development — highlighted by the ‘outstanding’ Shrewsbury College. While issues of a rural county like Shropshire persist – such as access – the necessity for continued student support, innovation and strategic collaboration continues to be a priority.
Competition in the FE sector hinges on adaptability, quality of teaching and courses, relevance, and local community ‘fit’. Areas that Shrewsbury College is aware of and working to lead on.
Background
Shrewsbury College was, at one point, two very separate colleges: Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology and Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. A decision to merge the two colleges was taken, and in 2016 their educational offerings and combined resources were brought together.
The merger aimed to provide a more comprehensive and flexible learning environment for students from Shrewsbury and the wider Shropshire catchment area, combining the strengths of both colleges. Benefits of the merger included improved facilities, an enhanced curriculum, more dedicated support services and resources, as well as it being a strategic move to better serve the education needs of the region in the medium to long term.
After the merger in 2016 the college went by the name of ‘Shrewsbury Colleges Group’, but in 2025 it was decided to rename the college to Shrewsbury College to show progression to a single, unified college across three different campuses.
Challenge
The challenge was set and Source was brought in to help Shrewsbury Colleges Group complete its 2025 transformation to ‘Shrewsbury College’, by developing a visual identity for everyone to unite around, as well as helping to instill a sense of pride and belonging in this exciting new chapter of its history.
As well as embodying everything that the college stands for, the new visual identity needed to work hard across all of the touchpoints – both online and offline – for students, staff and other stakeholders.
It had to be stand-out, easily identifiable and show progression away from the merger to a single college across three distinct sites. Prior to 2016 the previous colleges had a long history and reputation within the town and in people’s psyches. So, most of all, the rebrand would have to show a strong representation of a ‘fresh start’ for the college as a whole.
Requirements
The specific requirements of the project were: a new college logo, an appropriate primary and secondary colour palette and a refreshed tone of voice – all of which would actively support the college to achieve its corporate and educational objectives.
Once developed, Source would be responsible for the roll-out of the new brand alongside the communications and marketing team at Shrewsbury College.
Solution
Several Source team members were students at the two colleges, and so had strong connections and a vested interest in the success of the project.
However, this didn’t stop them from starting off with a blank piece of paper and conducting a thorough deep dive into the requirements and objectives of the rebrand. The team fully interrogated the brief, getting a 360-degree understanding of what was needed and laying the groundwork that would inform the creative outputs required.
Next, Source facilitated a series of discovery sessions, engaging with the college leadership team, governors, teaching staff and students to understand the drivers and impact of any change. These vital sessions allowed both the creative and strategic teams at Source to get ‘under the skin’ of the opinions and emotions in relation to the college, its vision and values and thoughts on the outgoing brand.
“There were four key areas that we needed to balance when coming up with a solution that was going to work,” comments Paula Savage, director at Source. “These were the views of the college and other key stakeholders, industry and competitor research, the technical requirements of the project and finally the creative input of our design experts.
“Our discovery phase was vital in gaining as much information and understanding about the project as possible. Coming at it with a fresh perspective was really important – but so was getting to grips with the history and opinions about where the college had come from.”
With the stakeholder discovery sessions finalised, detailed research into the further education sector concluded, and a more intensive dive into the requirements of the project finished, it was time to make a start on the initial creative concepts.
Using the research-based approach to inform the initial design styles, work soon progressed into a range of creative concepts.
Some of the initial concepts took a more conventional approach to educational brand design, whilst others took a more creative direction. Inspiration came from many areas, including the local area and history, the college’s ambitions as well as other ideas explored during the discovery sessions. All of these were investigated and exploited to develop initial concepts that would lead to discussion and healthy debate.
“We worked at finding a range of creative and workable solutions that addressed all of the four aspects we needed to cover. These all came from different viewpoints and approaches, and it was our research-based approach mixed with our in-house creative skills that helped us to work closely with the Shrewsbury College team and develop a single successful route for further development,” continues Paula.
Results
After presenting, reviewing and discussing the initial creative ideas with the Shrewsbury College team and wider stakeholders, Source went away to refine two shortlisted routes which eventually became a single concept, bringing together many interesting and engaging elements from the research and previous iterations.
The rebrand was focussed on a visual concept that highlighted the important journey and pathways available to students when joining Shrewsbury College, whether that be as a student or as an employee. After all, Shrewsbury College has a long history of successfully encouraging and supporting students to undertake their own, individual educational journey and find their way to personal achievement. The brand also encompassed colours from the local area that people were already comfortable with and recognised as well as subtle nods to the town and the meandering river loop encompassing the town.
The final, approved rebrand idea brought to life all the required elements requested by Shrewsbury College. A streamlined approach to the visual identity was born with the logo colour scheme and tone of voice guidelines.
Stand-out, easily identifiable and representative of a single college over three campuses, the chosen brand identity was approved in early 2025 and began roll-out across all locations and touchpoints ready for the intake of new students in September 2025.
“It was a pleasure to work with Shrewsbury College as it embarked on this important brand discovery and change progamme.” explains Paula Savage. “From the initial brief through to the roll-out of the chosen visual identity, we have worked closely with the college and its marketing and communications team to make sure we created and delivered a brand that it would be proud of, and one that would work now and in the future.
“The clarity of the brand resonates with the approach the college is taking to streamline its structure as a single, unified college, and how it is seen in the education and wider Shropshire communities.”
