What a week here at Positioning Project Central!

Monday, we kicked off this week with a focused campus visit from two of our SimpsonScarborough partner team members who led us through several feedback sessions to help finalize our positioning platform. As always, special thanks to those returning to deliver next round feedback and a special virtual thumbs-up to the gaggle of blog readers who contributed in the afternoon. I hope the chance to think bigger thoughts about the kinds of emotions we wish to evoke with our positioning was enlightening.. and a little bit fun. Our visitors also staged some “roving focus groups” with students to get their take as well.

Tuesday, I met with representatives of our Board of Trustees External Relations committee, who were also helpful in their next round feedback.

I think the hardest part of this phase for feedback participants was wrapping one’s brain around the idea that what we were producing are concepts that our later work will be based upon. These concepts are not a unique selling proposition, nor are they words that will show up on a brochure or webpage, but will mostly exist to help my team and SimpsonScarborough develop the actual campus guidelines we will be using. But until you know what idea of Bryn Mawr College you want to evoke, it’s hard to write language around it. Or, create official colors and fonts, etc.

So in this vein, the foundational promise that we developed is the emotional connection that should be felt, seen, or heard in every experience where people touch our College. It’s a feeling we want to leave people with. And our final Promise now reads like this:

Delight in the pursuit of truth: At Bryn Mawr College, the pursuit of truth — both personal and intellectual — is not a destination but a continuous journey. On this journey we welcome all lantern bearers regardless of where or how they start their pursuit. Together, as Mawrters, we light the way, making bright the dark and illuminating the path ahead.

And underneath that Promise are four Pillars that support that idea and will be fleshed out via messaging and visuals: Wisdom, Connected, Confidence, and Leadership. We are on the verge of finalizing the descriptions of each Pillar that will give us even more direction.

Well, I want to go to college there, don’t you?

Looking ahead, SimpsonScarborough will be heads down preparing for the start of the third phase of this project, the Creative Concepts Phase. Personally, I think all the phases are fun, but many people will consider this the most fun part of the project. Here is where we flesh out things like our new College color palette, official fonts, photography style, messaging tone, and more. We will also begin to examine our official wordmark/logo and decide whether any tweaks or changes might be needed. They will be presenting some of their initial creative ideas on 3/18 to my team and some other office representatives, so I will not have any blog updates until after that point. They will also return to campus in early April for round two of the Creative phase, when you will again be invited to participate in feedback sessions.

Special shoutout to blog reader Sarah Robertson who emailed in response to last week’s post about our Latin motto and its various interpretations. We appreciate all contributions!