Students take on 48-hour challenge to brand a national women’s football team
How do you build an ironclad brand for a national women's football team in just two days? Twenty international students at Høgskulen i Volda took on the challenge during an intensive Erasmus Exchange workshop.
Under the guidance of Dutch branding experts Coen Luijten and Joris van Dooren, branding was transformed into a strategic game.
At the invitation of Thomas Lewe, who is responsible for the strategic design track at Høgskulen i Volda, the Fontys lecturers traveled to Norway. The goal of the 'Living Lab Building Better Brands' was to test whether an international group could establish an authentic brand for a national women’s soccer team in record time through gamification and agile 'sprints'.
Seven teams of students were immersed in a process of nine 'levels' over the course of two days. From researching the "real emotion" of a country to designing logos and mascots, the time pressure was constantly palpable. "Too much time kills everything," according to the motto of the sprint methodology, forcing students to rely on their creativity.
Don't F*ck Up Your Baby
Luijten and Van Dooren are no strangers to the field. They are the authors of Don’t F*ck Up Your Baby, a leading book on branding for startups. Their philosophy – that a brand is extremely vulnerable in its early stages and you must raise it into maturity with care – formed the foundation of the workshop.
The results spoke for themselves. Joris van Dooren was so impressed by the creativity that he stated the students' jersey designs could go straight into the official merchandise lines of national football associations.
Knowledge Exchange and AI
The integration of AI tools proved essential for meeting the tight deadlines. Students used technology not only to develop the visual DNA but also for creating an audio identity in the form of a team anthem. In addition to the enthusiastic reactions from the students, the guest lecturers also looked back positively on the initiative.
They praised the interesting knowledge exchange with Norwegian fellow lecturers and the boundless energy of the international group. The experiment proved that the combination of a rigid structure and a playful approach is the ideal breeding ground for innovation.
Below you will get a taste of the students' work.
