On Schools Web Design

Excellence will be continually under scrutiny.

We are given to believe the quality of academic education at the majority of independent school today is as good as it ever has been. There seems to a growing confidence that their own staff can not only teach but tackle the most ambitious projects beyond the classroom. Schools can draw on a wealth of in-house talent. Staff can now be responsible for raising 3 million for a new teaching block, designing the new website and prospectus, to taking a group to explore the Chinese Wall!

This “can do” philosophy is something worth applauding, admirable, if the school can save by utilising “in house” talent. Enthusiasm, confidence and convenience are words which came to mind when schools appoint their own staff to undertake projects beyond their prescribed remit. But a word of caution needs to be shared when that commission ventures into the school’s marketing strategy. There appears to be a number of reasons why a school may choose to use their own staff; we can do it better, we can save money, we will have better control, but in reality, there have been a few pitfalls!

There are examples where the initial enthusiasm of the staff to take on projects has subsequently faltered because staff have been overwhelmed by the demands of their core activity. There is an increasing number of schools whose IT staff have volunteered their expertise to construct and maintain the school’s website, only to discover that they took on a project which demanded a larger share of their time than they had anticipated.

Many teaching staff own high resolution digital cameras and their images are appearing in school publicity. This can be helpful particularly when an event occurs off site or overseas. But when these pictures are published there are frequently problems.

A number of schools continue to use ‘well meaning’ staff with limited knowledge of design or typography or the ability to buy good printing.

The real issue here is that schools prefer to be perceived as centres of excellence. Not only in the possession of academic results, but in all that they do. The dilemma is that we have an increasingly visually articulate public who are scrutinising all that a school does. This includes anything that enters the public domain.

It is difficult to dampen the enthusiasm of staff eager to get involved. But there are still too many websites which are out of date, under construction or fail to work, merely because the in house staff are too busy. There are too many school publications which fail to conform to the school’s branding ethos, or suffer from poor repro.

The solution is to be well informed in the first place. Involve your design company in advising on how the talents of the school’s staff can be constructively used. In terms of web site management, use an efficient content management system. This will enable the schools to easily update the site. Whilst its design remains consistent to the school's corporate identity.

Consistent use of the corporate branding is vital if a school is going to convey an impressive public profile. To achieve this use a standard set of corporate guidelines. These need to be issued by the design company. This would cover the correct use of colours, typeface specification and logo and the use of (recycled) paper.

There are still too many excellent schools that have misunderstood the importance of effective branding. The visual links between the school’s website to the prospectus, the stationery and school livery should consistently reinforcing marketing strategy. It’s worth checking your school’s public profile to see how well co-ordinated the Corporate identity is being implemented. If it is managed well, then the public have a good clue that the school is being well managed.

Good schools need to be seen as excellent in all areas that impact on the public.

If you would like to explore cost effective ways of co-ordinate school branding, the Prospectus, the website, the fund raising programme JWA would be pleased to hear from you.

For more information please visit our website www.jwaltd.com