Branding, whether it be for a big business or a small business can be crucial. Typically, it can either align an institution with a philosophy or a literal image, sometimes both. The University of New England in New South Wales holds an orientation event every year called Lifesaver Day, and they asked Inflatable Anything to create custom blow up letters to display at that years’ occasion, in the school’s colors and based on their current advertising campaign.
The annual happening is meant to introduce new students to their communities, both on campus and in the surrounding city of Armidale. Student organisations and local businesses put up stalls to give pupils a good idea of what kind of support they can expect to look forward to for the next few years of their lives. We think the best part of the university’s branding efforts is that it not only gives UNE an identity as an institution of higher learning, but it also gives a sense of identity to the student community, some of whom may be away from home for the first time in a big way.
Here at Inflatable Anything we always love providing that kind of support to fellow businesses through our work. However, it’s a fantastic perk when we can extend that fellowship to the people our clients serve, and we could not wait to help the university with this endeavor!
A Blueprint to Follow
The client wasn’t looking for anything elaborate and that was purposeful. Ultimately what they wanted was down-to-Earth, welcoming, effortlessly branded custom blow up letters to foster campus engagement. After some discussion, Inflatable Anything and the university came to an agreement that these letters would be best if they stayed grounded, as opposed to for example being suspended from the ceiling. The campaign called for just 6 letters spelling out “evolve,” which is related to their overall commitment to prepare their student body to face the challenges and obstacles of today’s changing world. Three of said custom blow up letters would be black, and the other half would be green.
The design was so straightforward that there wasn’t a whole lot of planning that needed to be done. The only tiny bump in the road we came across was figuring out how to keep the O and the Vs upright, because they have much less ground surface in which to put a solid base. This happened to be a great collaboration between ourselves and the university though, because they already had a solution for that. All that was left was to sign the project over to us, which came swiftly!
Coming Together
The client requested solid colors for these humble 2 meter high and 1 meter wide custom blow up letters, which meant they didn’t even need us for our printing capabilities; they simply knew we would have the same level of dedication to this project and to this venture as they did. So we used coloured 100% polyvinyl chloride panels, which when welded add to the durability of an already durable material. Without any artwork to approve, we moved straight to the next step in our process.
As soon as we heard about the concept for these custom blow up letters, we knew that the superior material for the job was polyvinyl chloride. The most obvious reason being that it’s wild to believe they would want noisy, constant blowers at an event meant to ease the anxieties of new students. With this polymer, you can actually apply heat to the seams of the panels, which will fuse them together quite nicely. From there, all you have to do is inflate the custom blow up letters and seal them off, and they’ll stay like that for at least several hours.
We just had to affix solid plywood boards to the bottom.
PVC is also one of the most durable options of material Inflatable Anything offers, meaning these custom blow up letters were definitely built to last for as long as UNE saw fit. We were absolutely delighted with the idea that something we created might help to foster a meaningful sense of community for these New South Wales students for years to come!
The Big Day
The client was delightfully involved in much of the process of making these custom blow up letters, which was refreshing. The letters went through our quality control protocols and careful packaging and shipping with just enough time before the event actually took place. The university was very appreciative of our efforts on behalf of them and their student body, and by all accounts, they worked perfectly. UNE has even used them for several Lifesaver Days since then!
Are you looking for someone to help further your brand or message with the same enthusiasm you have? We might just be for you! Contact our team of professionals today!
