The most important objective of our recent rebrand for the University of Dundee was to tie together every area of the university under one coherent identity. One of the most interesting areas of the project was the challenge of incorporating the university’s art school, Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design, within the overall brand.
“Figures have risen since the rebrand, and the project has been widely regarded as both successful and innovative in its approach.”
Last week we co-presented a talk on the success of the work for the ‘Brand and Reputation Showcase’ at this year’s CASE Europe Annual Conference in Edinburgh. The conference gathers over 1,000 practitioners from the worlds of fundraising, supporter relations, marketing, communications and recruitment together with senior education leaders and strategists from across the world.
At the event we discussed the process of launching the Duncan of Jordanstone identity within the context of the wider University of Dundee rebranding project and specifically examinied how far it was possible to creatively differentiate while remaining identifiably on-brand.
To successfully brand organisations that communicate with hugely varying audiences a great deal of flexibility has to be built into the design system from the outset. We were fortunate to work with a team within the art school who not only knew their audience needs inside-out, but also understood the overall objectives of the wider rebrand.
A key marker of success was to increase numbers of Rest of UK and overseas applications. Figures have risen by 44% and 43% respectively since the rebrand, and the project has been widely regarded as both successful and innovative in it’s approach.
Thanks to all at Duncan of Jordanstone and CASE for inviting us along to share our thoughts.
