At the Digital Marketing Academy and the Graphic Design Academy, students are constantly working on real world projects for real clients that become part of their portfolio. In this way, not only do they learn what it is like to work in a real working environment and gain real experience, they also have the opportunity to demonstrate their overall knowledge and upgrade their skills.
The last project they worked on was of great importance to them as future generations of successful marketers and designers as it brought together their knowledge and strength, building a product that was implemented and launched after a month of work.
Through this type of work, they had the opportunity to implement their knowledge, and thus receive real feedback on their ads, generating leads, social media content, creations and designs from the general public. But the most important thing is that they learned to work with different profiles and characters of people and to overcome all challenges as a team.
This time, the real project that the students from the Graphic Design Academy and the Digital Marketing Academy worked on was called Our Mind, for which they had to make a complete marketing strategy and brand identity.
Our Mind is a fully integrated online platform that aims to dispel the taboo topic of having a conversation with a psychologist and is here to help anyone facing any challenge in life. On this platform, people can talk to professionals and get advice, consultation and support on a variety of topics in order to improve overall mental health.
How did OurMind come about?
The whole process of launching and building a product that will be available to the public, started with 5 students from the Digital Marketing Academy and 4 students from the Graphic Design Academy, who had 1 month to prepare the whole branding and marketing strategy, and then additionally another month for advertising their marketing campaigns.
The story began with an idea and a briefing by clients Maja and Stefan, where they introduced the students to their entire business idea and told them exactly what their expectations were, but gave them complete freedom to express their creativity. In addition to this, they had several mentoring sessions with Iva Dujak, where the two teams (marketing and design) had brainstorming sessions in order to synchronize and share responsibilities.
What were the tasks of the marketing team?
After the briefing, the marketing team started with their first research, i.e. detailed competition analysis, SWOT analysis, they determined their Unique Selling Propositions.
The second step was to think about the story behind the name Our Mind, as well as the platform’s mission and vision.
This was followed by a second market analysis survey. The students from the Digital Marketing Academy made an anonymous questionnaire that consisted of all questions related to the personal characteristics and daily habits of the Macedonian people. On that questionnaire, they received about 800 answers. This analysis served them as the basis for their buyer personas and determined the tone and the way they will communicate to the audience.
After completing this step, they started creating content for social media. After a long analysis and research on Facebook, Instagram and blogs on the topic of psychology, they came to the conclusion that this is still seen as a taboo topic. Well, that’s why they divided their posts into educational, motivational, sales, and psychologist presentations.
The next step was the teaser campaign, which was supposed to reach the audience and make them interested that something new would happen. Their first post was with the sentence “Leave me, don’t talk to me”, and through it they wanted to reach anyone who finds or is interested in the story, to follow them on Facebook & Instagram, in order to gain more organic followers and engagement.
The next challenge they faced was building the landing site on which they worked on together with the design team. The marketing team was engaged in the foundations and content of the site, i.e. everything that needed to generate leads, while the design team was there to present the ideas of marketers in wonderful creative solutions.
Throughout this process, the marketing team continued to work on this project for another month and its task was to run ads through Facebook ads manager and also to monitor how they were performing. They also organized three free webinars on the platform, for which they created content, while Jovana from the design team created designs.
How did the design team start creating the logo?
As for the design team and their work on this project, the whole process started with creating the logo and the whole branding. At the first meeting with Maja and Stefan, they got freedom to be creative in terms of logo design for Our Mind, but they also got examples of logos that they like and colors that they would like to use in the logo itself.
The process of making a logo design started with online research and drawing logo ideas. The most important thing was to first choose the typography or the font, and then the symbol for the logo was easily created. They decided that Our Mind should consist of typography and symbols.
Because it is an online platform for young psychologists offering expert advice, lectures and mental health training, they wanted the logo to have a symbol associated with it.
The symbol of Our Mind is composed of a head (the letter O from the word Our) which represents the human head and a “scribble” (as the designers called it), a thought that is a symbol of intertwined thoughts and mental hygiene. With that, the students from the Graphic Design Academy presented the role of Our Mind and their goal to help those who have “intertwined thoughts”.
Their next step was the color palette. They decided to have 3 primary colors: green, orange and beige / ivory, where each of the colors represented some part of mental health.
Green is the color of life, renewal, associated with growth, harmony, security, which helps relieve anxiety, depression and nervousness. Orange color means warmth, change, determination, health, happiness, freedom and so on. While beige is neutral, calming and relaxing and symbolizes energy and strength, it describes ethical behavior and the ability to overcome any problem.
After finishing with the choice of colors and the creation of the logo with its symbol, the next task was to create the complete branding concept for Our Mind, i.e. design for social media, design for the content to be published, as well as design of the website and landing page.
Also, the students from the Graphic Design Academy, distributed the announcements by color, where the sales posts are presented in green, the motivational ones are presented in orange, the educational ones are presented in beige, and the psychologists are presented in white.
This was followed by the design of the entire landing site on which they worked on with the marketing team as it gave them directions to what the site should contain. Finally, to come up with a functional product that was launched to the public.
Congratulations on the completed project!
We are proud of students who are not afraid to take on challenges and successfully overcome them!
Huge thanks to our mentor Iva Dujak, who was available to the students at all times for advice and consultation, and also who constantly motivated them!
In addition, you can read what the students shared with us about the implementation and launch of this product:
Stefan Shevchenko
The client’s requirements were quite clear. Our team was expected to build the entire brand of the company from scratch. This included designing a logo, slogan, creating the right marketing strategy and everything else needed to successfully launch a brand.
The chance that was given to us, to work on such a project, was a great experience for all of us as digital marketers. All the tools and knowledge we learned in the Academy, we successfully implemented on the project. In addition, it enriched our knowledge and experience. One of the best feelings is that Our Mind project is about a platform created to help people, and we were part of the beginning of that story.
Jasmina Gergovska
I did not know how much experience I had gained from the Graphic Design Academy until I started working as a graphic designer and realized how much I had learned. The knowledge I have gained is certainly a great foundation for any design challenge. Our mentors are professionals at work and selflessly know how to share their knowledge during and outside of lectures.
Ideas are all around us. Our job is to recognize what is needed and what should be discarded from the beginning. We drew inspiration from life, and most of all from the current situation because it is the biggest enemy of mental health, especially this period. In my opinion, as a designer, it is crucial before the process to get well acquainted with the topic of what you need to do.
Jovana Neshova
The whole process of creating the logo and the whole branding of Our Mind went great. At the first meeting for the project, Maja and Stefan gave us free rein in terms of logo design, and we, together with the help of the marketing team, managed to do it. The logo was to convey and associate with warmth, harmony, peace, serenity … in gentle tones and colors.
The process of making a logo design started with researching the internet and drawing logo ideas (Behance, Dribbble, Pinterest ..). The key and most important was to first choose the typography or font, where then it was much easier to create the symbol for the logo.
Maja Dodeva
Business refers to mental health, psychology, which are very sensitive topics of conversation, especially on social media. It took us a long time to research and think about the content and the approach to the audience because the people who need this kind of help are very sensitive.
The experience that emerged from working on this project was like facing reality. We simply applied everything we learned at the Digital Marketing Academy to a real situation and it helped us to learn a lot more.
Marija Misheva
The project itself was a huge challenge. Working on a project that has a “more delicate” theme was the first challenge for us as students who have just graduated from the Academy. The process itself was not so simple because for the first time we worked on something real, from its beginning. But I must say that cooperation and the understanding between the two teams and the client, made us enjoy the process and overcome all challenges.
The client was clear and concise in their requirements. They had a clear idea of the brand, what it represents, what services it offers, which is very positive for the whole process of cooperation. We all had a clear goal from the very beginning, what is expected of us and what we need to fulfill.
Monika Jovanovska
The feeling of working on a real project is always interesting and exciting. The pressure followed by the deadlines always creates a positive euphoria in which I try to get the most out of myself. I witnessed great reactions from the public and I think that the project was successfully launched. I am proud of the team of which I had the opportunity to be part of.
The Graphic Design Academy was a wonderful experience for me and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from great mentors who passed on their knowledge to us unselfishly. I think it is a great foundation and preparation for further development of my career as a graphic designer.
Viktor Petkovski
Brainster has its own ways of allocating students to projects that would suit their affinity, and with this project it once again proved that it knows how to get the most out of all of us. The beginning was not very difficult, because we knew we had the full support of the Academy in case we got stuck somewhere.
The Brainster team was here for us literally 24/7. At times I was really impressed by their responsiveness, during weekends, they were here during my entire experience as a student at the Academy. Moderation, professionalism and ethical approach in communication and transfer of knowledge to students is highly appreciated!
Despina Spirovska
This was a project with which we as a team managed to go through almost everything that a marketer working in a marketing company would go through. At the very beginning, we started researching the audience and the competition, in order to properly position our brand, all the way to creating a complete marketing strategy, telling the story of the brand, creating an appropriate campaign, content for social media, etc.
I must admit that the task was not easy, but with our mentor – Iva Dujak things were easier. Iva was always smiling and positive to the team to guide and motivate us when it was most needed. Launching a brand that is specific in itself is not easy, so the challenge is even greater. We aimed to remove taboo topics and prejudices about psychologists and bring them closer to the audience. The need to take care of our mental health is increasing every day, so it should come first, and so we set the whole strategy.
Make an appointment with our student success manager for more directions and details about the program!
