Degree Show 2026
Kate Speechly
BA Graphic and Communication Design
Throughout my studies and industrial placement year, I developed a strong interest in branding, advertising and editorial design and aspire to build my career within these areas. My final year has given me the opportunity to explore these disciplines through an independent project focused on rebranding and content marketing for Bonsai Hi-Fi based on the brand’s cultural identity, heritage and values, alongside a contemporary advertising brief combining creative thinking and illustration.
My final independent project centres around re-branding and content marketing for the brand Bonsai Hi-Fi, an independent sound system and music event inspired by Japanese culture and underground disco heritage. Through a new visual identity, logo design and experimental publication, this project aims to communicate the brand’s authenticity, cultural identity and community-driven values to create brand differentiation and strengthen audience engagement and emotional connection in the context of a declining night-life industry and increasingly oversaturated hi-fi listening-bar market.
As part of my contemporary advertising brief to promote the pencil as the ultimate creative tool, I produced the ‘Creativity Without Constraint’ campaign for Stabilo. The campaign explored multiple touchpoints including social media advertising, billboards and web banners, built around the proposition that the pencil offers a more reliable and less restrictive creative experience than digital technology.