british virgin islands, organisation of eastern caribbean states (oecs)Brand Strategy2023HLSCC - Education and Blue Economy
[ OVERVIEW ]Few regions understand the implications of climate resilience and ocean stewardship more intimately than the island nations of the OECS. When I worked with the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) in the British Virgin Islands on their rebrand strategy, the college was reimagining what vocational education could look like for the OECS and the territory in a Blue Economy policy framework. To develop a new brand involved engaging both legacy and possibility, history and vision. As their Founder, the late Hugh Lavity Stoutt, built the foundations for accessible education in the BVI, the task now was to articulate a brand that could honour that history while guiding the institution into a new era of regional impact and resilience.
Case Study Details - HLSCC
Goal
OECS Vocational Education Awareness
Activities
Brand Research, Creative Concept, Photography
Rebrand Campaign - Our Tomorrow Begins Today
Results
[ HIGHLIGHTS ]Our tomorrow begins today.
Brand Strategy Foundations
We began with deep research into the BVI and OECS educational landscape. This involved understanding policy priorities, territorial development plans, and emerging workforce needs. Through stakeholder interviews and secondary research, we brought the college’s subtler strengths to the fore, clarifying communications around vocational programs. Where it felt appropriate, we included emphasis on climate resilience, regional relevance and economic diversification. This strategic grounding ensured that communications spoke to Caribbean transformation.
Identity and Relevance
Working closely with leadership and faculty, we translated research insights into a coherent brand strategy that honored the college’s legacy while positioning it for its next chapter. The process revealed a tension between history and innovation, community roots and regional ambition, that ultimately shaped a new identity. By articulating clear messaging themes, student learning pathways, and a narrative built around opportunity, the college gained a brand aligned with both its mission and its moment.
Campaign Impact
“Our Tomorrow Begins Today” was a multi-channel digital rebrand campaign focused on increasing visibility of vocational programs central to the BVI’s Blue Economy transition. Through strategic storytelling, concept development, and creative leadership across photoshoots, content, and digital assets such as social media materials, we helped the college solidify its pioneering role in preparing a new generation of marine professionals, sustainable tourism stewards, and technical specialists. This strengthened confidence positioned HLSCC as a regional leader shaping the future workforce of the OECS.
Regional Context
Located in the British Virgin Islands, HLSCC operates within a uniquely interconnected region where climate resilience and community livelihood are intertwined. Our work supported the college’s aim to expand its visibility beyond the territory - advancing its presence and solid respected reputation across the OECS, aligning with broader Blue Economy initiatives for the BVI. By integrating regional narratives into the brand, we reinforced the college’s story so that it resonated across OECS: Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Anguilla, Martinique, Guadeloupe.
Project Highlights
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Understanding the territory: insights from the OECS and the BVI
Through personal interviews with faculty, alumni, current students, and local industry partners, we gained a multi-faceted understanding of how vocational programs were shaping the territory’s climate and economic future. The interviews revealed something profound about the Blue Economy in the BVI, which is that it is often held up by everyday, often unseen heroes:
Maritime studies graduates maintaining the vessels that connect islands and enable trade.
Culinary arts trainees strengthening food systems at the core of the BVI’s tourism-driven economy.
Environmental science and mangrove restoration students protecting coastal ecosystems that buffer storm impacts through reforestation and research.
Solar installation technicians, trained at HLSCC, powering the territory’s homes and infrastructure into a hurricane-resilient future.
One story that truly stood out came from an alumnus who had been previously incarcerated. Through HLSCC’s solar program, he rebuilt his life. After attaining his certification, today he is partnering with luxury homeowners on Virgin Gorda to transition villas to renewable, hurricane-resistant solar power. More than that, he has also decided to dedicate himself to training other formerly incarcerated individuals - helping them enter the climate workforce and reimagine what’s possible for their future and the territory’s. His story became a symbolic anchor for the campaign: climate resilience is community resilience.
These insights grounded all our strategic decisions, ensuring that our work elevated the real everyday heroes shaping the BVI’s climate future.
Reclaiming identity: building a brand strategy for a blue economy future
With this human-centered research in hand, we crafted a brand strategy that not only honoured the college’s historic roots but articulated its growing role in climate innovation across the region.
At the center of the brand conversation was a question: How does a community college carry forward the legacy of a national icon while preparing the workforce that will safeguard the islands for generations to come?
The answer lived in the stories we heard - stories of second chances, intergenerational knowledge sharing, coastal protection and resilience after surviving the ravages of hurricanes, and hands-on climate solutions emerging directly from vocational classrooms. These narratives shaped the strategic pillars that guided the rebrand and its messaging architecture:
A commitment to opportunity: education as mobility, dignity, and empowerment.
A commitment to resilience: teaching the skills needed for a climate-affected region.
A commitment to legacy: honouring Hugh Lavity Stoutt’s vision of education for all.
A commitment to regional leadership: aligning with OECS Blue Economy frameworks.
By articulating this vision, the college stepped forward not just as an educational institution, but as a driver of territorial and regional stability.
Bringing brand strategy to life: a regional campaign for visibility and impact
Strategy became expression through “Our Tomorrow Begins Today,” the concept we created in close partnership with the College’s Communications Team. This phase transformed insights into stories that resonated across generations, industries, and islands.
The campaign’s creative direction intentionally centered the real people whose work strengthens the BVI’s climate future:
Students learning to restore mangrove forests.
Culinary trainees redefining food pathways for tourism.
Maritime students training for roles vital to inter-island mobility with globally relevant skills.
Solar technicians shaping a hurricane resilient, renewable-energy economy - one rooftop at a time.
Through photography, messaging, and creative production in tandem with their brand consultant, the rebrand reveal campaign elevated the idea that climate resilience is local work done in the present in consideration of the future - embodied by the hands and stories of people who live, learn, and lead in the Caribbean.
Branding as stewardship for a blue economy era
This project reaffirmed an essential design and branding concept: Branding in the climate space is not cosmetic - it is stewardship.
In a region where the ocean takes up more space than land, institutions like HLSCC play a critical role in training the workforce that will shape the Caribbean’s next chapter. Through personal interviews, human-centered research, and storytelling grounded in lived experience, we helped the college express both who they have always been and who they are becoming.
“Our Tomorrow Begins Today” became more than a campaign line. It captured a truth we witnessed firsthand: The future of the Blue Economy is already being built - quietly, skillfully, and courageously - by the people whose stories deserve to be seen.
