Preparing to re-open a campus during a global pandemic

How do you get a university ready to come out of lockdown?

Cover everything.

Challenge

As the UK showed initial signs of recovery from COVID-19 and prepared to come out of the first lockdown, we were challenged to lead the University of Birmingham’s Estates department in preparing the campus to allow it students, staff and local community to return safely.

Journey

When we first entered lockdown, we started thinking about what we would need to do to return to campus. This meant we could identify early on what we could supply and gave us the flexibility to research new lines.

Working during such uncertain times provided some novel challenges. While we could call on our vast experience and expertise, we also had to quickly adapt to new supply chain variations, learn about the safe storage and distribution of hand sanitiser and get to grips with working with new materials.

How we fulfilled the orders safely during a pandemic also created challenges for our team. Working with a reduced team on-site meant a change to our normal working day, with split shifts and multi-tasking, effectively working 12-hour days for three months to get the campus ready.

Solution

We designed, printed, stored, distributed and installed signage and safety equipment for over 200 buildings for the University.

It was an incredible project to be involved in and we’re very proud that our effort was recognised by ACPME (Association of Creative and Print Managers in Education), who awarded us ‘Best in-house service support of the institution during Covid-19’.

Services

Creative Print Installation