Pears Cumbria Medical School: New brand and visual identity

The University of Cumbria and Imperial College London collaborated to establish the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, a new medical school aiming to educate and train future medical professionals for the North West and beyond from September 2025. 

The partnership brings together Imperial’s world-class medical education to meet the need for more doctors due to rising healthcare demands in Cumbria and the North West. 

Developing the brand strategy

Stakeholder buy-in was crucial for the new medical school, especially being in the unique position of gaining buy-in from two universities. 

We kickstarted the project with stakeholder focus groups to understand their visions of the school and ensured their continuous involvement throughout the project until completion.

We also conducted a number of research activities via interviews, surveys and competitor reviews to identify:

• the priority audiences

• the prospective audience personas and their top tasks 

Using insights from the discovery phase, the vision of the school and existing logo, we developed three concepts of visual identities and two messaging routeways. We conducted user-testing to inform the final creative output to ensure it met user needs.

Developing the content strategy

A key part of the project was developing the content strategy for their new website. We helped to set up the School for long-term success by working quickly to launch the new site and by providing a roadmap of recommendations for how the site could be developed in future to best meet users needs. 

Using our insights from our discovery phase to inform the structure of the new website, we: 

• designed the initial information architecture

• identified the content types

• created page tables

We worked closely with a third-party agency, 6bythree, who developed the technical implementation of the website.

Bringing the strategy to life

Once the final creative output and messaging routeways were confirmed, we created the brand guidelines for the School. The brand guidelines included:

• development of iconography and secondary visual devices 

• how photography is used and applied across the identity

• how typography is applied across the identity

• the practical applications of design elements

• key messaging for each priority audience

• tone of voice guidance

Using the new guidelines to weave the key messaging and brand narratives to create compelling content, we produced:

• the visual designs for the wireframes

• copywriting for the new website

“Pickle Jar’s adaptability, patience and innovation has pushed our brand into a space that reflects our bold ambition to become a new medical school in Cumbria for Cumbria. Starting from only one logo and a limited brief, they were able to support a wide group of stakeholders and build confidence in a process that was somewhat alien to a lot of us. It’s been a fantastic journey that has exemplified why thoughtful design is integral in a competitive HE market.”

Angie Illman, Senior Project Manager, Imperial College London