FIFE College creative students are continuing to make an impact on a programme to improve the River Leven after their brand and logo design for the initiative was been given the thumbs up and there is a strong Kinglassie influence.

The students designed an image with the tag line ‘growing with the flow’ which will visually represent the programme and be used on everything associated with it - from the website and publicity materials to t-shirts and recycled pencils.

The River Leven Programme is a very ambitious plan for the whole of the river catchment, from Loch Leven to Leven.

Fife College is an enthusiastic supporter of the initiative which is a partnership between SEPA, Sustrans, SNH, Central Scotland Green Network Trust, Scottish Water, Forth Rivers Trust, Fife Council, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Scottish Enterprise, Diageo and Fife College. The Programme also has support from lots of local groups and communities including CLEAR.

The branding project follows on from a very successful competition held at the end of last year where 16 students studying performing arts were set the task of producing a media project to highlight the concerns around climate change and adaptation around the River Leven.

Students studying HND Visual Communication took part in the recent branding project – over 30 students worked individually to produce designs as part of their graded unit for the course and then submitted their ideas to a panel of judges from The Leven project.

Students Lauren Tait, (29) and Ryan Ferguson, (21) from Kirkcaldy and Ben Gillespie, (20) from Kinglassie, were delighted to have their designs chosen to come together as the final winning brand.

Said Lauren: “It was great to work on a real life project which will make a difference to people and the environment in our community.

"We all enjoyed researching and learning about the project - the brief was quite loose so it gave us the freedom to be as creative as we wanted. It’s not just a logo, it means more to us than that as we know it represents an initiative which can improve and change people’s lives – it’s also great to know that it will be around for a while.”

Pauline Silverman (SEPA), Programme Manager for The Leven Programme, said, “The students at Fife College have surpassed all of our expectations – their designs were absolutely amazing. Choosing the winners from all of the submissions was really challenging, and we are all totally delighted with the final result. The other aspect of the work that really impressed us, was the amount of individual research that the students did, and that really added a whole new perspective to the project.”

John Wincott, Environmental Services Coordinator at Fife College is delighted with the final brand and said: “All of the students involved in the branding project did exceptionally well – their designs were fantastic and it was great to hear how much they enjoyed working on this project. Real tasks such as this are great for their CVs as they move on to further study or in to employment.

“It’s also great to hear from our partners that, as a result of this and our previous student projects, many more Fife College students will get the chance to play their part in shaping and developing low carbon and environmental initiatives to benefit people in Fife in the near future.”

All three students plan to progress on to do the BA Visual Communication course at the Fife College next year.

Fife College offers a wide range of creative courses, including courses starting in August – for further details visit fife.ac.uk or call 0344 248 0115.

From left to right (left to right), John Wincott, Ben Gillespie, Lauren Tait, Ryan Ferguson and Pauline Silverman from SEPA.