⚠️ the project is still in progress and may have some smaller issues throughout the documentation ⚠️
→ here's the Figma presentation of the current state
The Award
The project‘s self-imposed goal is to submit and win a D&AD New Blood Award in the Branding / Brand Refresh category.
The problem I wanted to work on for the award submission was the re(re)design of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences' corporate identity. The logo and the current CI are criticized in many places and offer a lot of opportunities for improvement. In addition, the problem is close to reality, but can still be implemented innovatively and offers a good opportunity for an award submission.
The Designer and Art Director Awards, D&AD for short, are among the most prestigious awards in advertising, graphics and brand design. Since the course is a student project and there is no commercial use context, my choice for the target award was the D&AD New Blood Award in the Branding / Brand-Refresh category.
Why?
Only recently, the university's new logo was unveiled. Despite a long prepared rebranding, however, the new logo was disappointing in many respects.
In this project, I address this problem and try to conceive a rebranding that can represent a serious public institution and at the same time appear fresh and dynamic.
Negative feedback has been received so far from outsiders, students and staff of the university as well as from renowned design blogs such as BRANDNEW. There is criticism of the new logo / corporate design on many points:
- The symbol seems too childish to many people or is confused with other symbols, such as the AIDS ribbon. The original idea of the alpha symbol (α) is not particularly striking.
- The red and blue compete too much, especially in the shadow of the bow.
- Both the current house font Montserrat and the colors and gradients that belong to the corporate look generic and meaningless.
- The gradients/shadows look strange in many color variations. As a 1c version, the logo doesn't work very well or it looks like another symbol.
- The wordmark is also misleading to read because of the different font styles if you don't know the name.
The Logo
The main logo for this branding is the initial letter A, similar to the university's previous logos. The basic idea of the symbol is the reference to the Anhalt heraldic animal - the bear, which becomes visible when the logo is turned 90°.
The logo is built on a very simple grid of four units. It is compact, memorable, and works both very small and large-scaled.
Typography
Publica Sans was chosen as the font because it is very simple and neutral in nature and bears a certain resemblance to the logo.
The Colours
The colours of the rebranding, like the symbols in the logo, are derived from the namesake federal state that the university represents. This creates a colour scheme of soft red, dark blue as the main colours and vibrant neon as a bright, fresh additional colour. Derived from these tones, the colours rose, cool grey and beige were introduced as secondary colours.
Usage
TO DOs
[ ! ] modification of the symbol (adjusting the distance from the circle to the squares to avoid confusion with „ö“ in horizontal alignment)
custom mockups (incl. photos of buildings, students and actual corporate elements of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences)
website re-design
[ ! ] preparation of the complete submission package
