A videogame-inspired comic was the perfect way to engage and authentically connect with students
Among our team we have both alumni and lecturers from University of the Arts London (UAL) – so we were overjoyed when UAL asked us to create a poster promoting a university-wide initiative to students.
University comms face many of the same challenges as large corporations – with the additional challenge of sometimes a much larger and younger audience with fast-changing media consumption habits. This affected the style of our comic, as we incorporated a retro video game style to ‘gamify’ the process of success in education.
In higher education, poor communication can lead to low motivation and low engagement with course material. This impacts not just the student experience but also perceptions of the institution and available support.
The Professional Practice Unit (PPU) sees students taking on a live industry brief in teams assembled from students on various courses throughout the university. Our task was to ensure that the PPU was recognised as a valuable opportunity by students. The content needed to be attention-grabbing, and convey a sense of what students might expect from their time on the PPU.
Comics for education to help clarify and cut through to a young audience
To tell the “success stories” of previous students, we framed the PPU as a videogame – assignments became “levels” to be unlocked and completed, leading to “levelling up” (skill acquisition).
We paid homage to classic games like Pokemon, showing students lining up to “battle” a particularly troublesome design brief!
To broaden the appeal of the comic and give it a positive, upbeat tone, we opted for a simple graphic style, with hand-drawn, vector-inspired shapes in a bright, sharp colour palette. The final panel of the comic was drawn in a pixel-art style to make the videogame references explicit and emphasis the sense of progression.
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