Renamed West Kent Technical College in 1948, the establishment had two sites – one in Tunbridge Wells and one in Tonbridge. In 1959 the College moved its Head Office to a new site in St. John’s Road, Tunbridge Wells.
The current name – West Kent College, was unveiled in 1964 as it moved to a larger site – the existing one at Brook Street, Tonbridge – to take account of the ever increasing number of students.
In 1990 the College and Thames Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich) entered into a partnership that enabled students to study diploma and degree courses locally.
West Kent College (WKC) is a significant organisation being the area’s largest employer with some 640 staff. It offers over 500 full and part-time courses from entry through to degree level. Students have access to over 1,000 computers, three Learning Resource Centres containing 30,000 items and are taught in one of 168 classrooms.
Throughout its long and distinguished history WKC has always advanced with the times, adopting new technologies and teaching practices when appropriate and, as the name changes suggest, ensuring that the College ethos matched the times.
Changes have also been made to the corporate design and recently the College embarked on an image update to bring the organisation squarely into line with 21st century design mores.
A specialist architectural sign manufacturer – Sign 2000, of Paddock Wood in Kent, was chosen to undertake the upgrade of the College’s existing main reception sign and to create and install a new built identity on the College entrance depicting the newly created corporate logo.
WKC spoke to a couple of other sign companies but felt that Sign 2000 offered them the best approach and the most creative ideas.
WKC also felt that Sign 2000’s experience, reliability and understanding of their requirements stood them in good stead.
The initial brief was given to Sign 2000 in Autumn 2006 who then worked up visuals of how the project would look. Following approval by WKC, manufacturing commenced in December 2006.
Sign 2000 first dismantled the existing letters of the text ‘Reception’ over the College entrance and expertly refurbished them at their Paddock Wood factory. They then affixed them to new back fascia panels and used LEDs to illuminate them before installation.
The new logotype the College had designed was a bold white circle orbited by a smaller, satellite white circle from which a single bold line arcs around the main circle for approximately two-thirds of its circumference. The text is in lower case with the word ‘west’ being white and outside the main circle while “kent college” are in red and within the main circle.
Sign 2000 manufactured a rectangular aluminium back tray painted red onto which they built up the text and logo. These were then LED illuminated and affixed onto the back tray.
Installation took place in January 2007 and the results have been highly effective according to the College who report that, “The College has had many positive comments about the new sign….it is impressive and looks particularly effective at night.”
