Christ Church Students’ Union
Reintroducing a students’ union to its audience with a bold, confident brand built around action.
The challenge we faced
Christ Church Students’ Union (CCSU) represents students at Canterbury Christ Church University, providing support, advocacy, and a wide range of activities. After several years away from campus, the Union was preparing to move into a new, high-profile building—marking a major new chapter. I led the full rebrand, including brand strategy, tone of voice, messaging, and core communications assets.
CCSU faced a visibility and perception problem. Despite delivering valuable services, many students saw the Union as either invisible or misunderstood what it actually did. Engagement was inconsistent, and messaging lacked clarity and impact. The move back onto campus created a rare opportunity: to relaunch the Union with a stronger presence and clearer identity. The challenge was to create a brand that felt bold, relevant, and unmistakably separate from the university—while still reflecting its supportive role. At the same time, the Union needed to speak to a diverse student audience with varying levels of engagement, from highly involved society members to those barely aware of its existence.
How we helped them
• Led a full brand discovery process, working closely with staff to uncover strengths, challenges, and ambitions.
• Developed a set of brand values – Exciting, Supportive, Dependable, Ambitious, Independent – to guide tone, behaviour, and decision-making.
• Created a clear, confident tone of voice that balanced energy and approachability with trust and support.
• Introduced the central brand concept “Make It Happen” – a simple, action-oriented idea designed to empower students and reflect the Union’s role in helping them shape their experience.
• Produced a suite of core messaging assets, including glossary terms, boilerplate copy and social media content, ensuring consistency across channels.
• Applied the new brand to key moments, including refreshed messaging for student elections to improve clarity and participation.
The impact we made
The new brand was enthusiastically received internally, with strong alignment around the values and messaging. The “Make It Happen” concept created a clearer, more confident identity that resonated across physical and digital spaces.
With a fun, playful visual brand designed by Natalie Morton of Let's Dance, the Union entered its new campus building with a more visible, distinctive presence, helping to reintroduce itself to students. Early feedback indicated improved perception and engagement, with the brand helping students better understand what the Union offers and why it matters.
What they said
The rebrand was a great experience and the result looks *chefs kiss*, as well as being so simple to incorporate into messaging and design. Everything looks and sounds amazing on our website, in our print literature and across our new building. We love it!