The London School of Economics (LSE) and University of London (UOL) are among the worlds most highly regarded higher education and research institutions, with long respective histories featuring key moments in the development of the social sciences.
The BSc Economics, Management, Finance and The Social Sciences programmes (EMFSS) are part of a collaborative enterprise between LSE, UOL and a host of global teaching centre partners. The programmes are aimed at the development and expansion of global knowledge of some of the key challenges facing the world today; enabling students to achieve an internationally recognised degree, while studying locally.
Through an inclusive series of workshops and close cooperation with the marketing and business development departments at LSE, we devised a highly innovative solution to addressed the key challenge: how to unite a broad and changing constituency of associated institutions under a single identity, and enable for equality of presence regarding the respective brands.
It was agreed that, at a time when economics and social science is under new pressure to demonstrate its relevance to the problems and social anxieties of its epoch, the solution needed to successfully interface the abstract nature of these academic subject areas with the real world.
We wanted to avoid stereotypical graphic representations of ‘global interconnectivity’, and instead develop a representation addressed directly to present social concerns over the relationship between environment, production and technology.
We worked with a premise that portrayed the awakening of latent intellectual genealogies, venturing (travelling) to take on todays environmental, economic and social problems.
A computer generated model was designed and developed, consisting of a constellation of abstract physical objects moving in orbit. Fashioned from a variety of different materials, we were able to digitally placed in the device in photographic ‘real-world’ spaces and settings.
Bold typography and a limited but strong colour palette was utilised in the imagery and graphic design to unite all stakeholder institutions under an innovative and highly flexible visual identity.
The challenge that I faced during my time at Saïd Business School was to build a fully staffed design department, that would be accountable for all of the School's published materials, working to a clear design strategy, embedded in the central marketing team
Over a number of years I developed and expanded a visual identity that would compete internationally. Crucially, the brand needed be to open to adaptation over time, while the design strategy and typographic system also needed to enable for maximum creativity whilst remaining consistent.
A set of revised colour values that exhibited a uniform vibrancy across all platforms were brought together by adjusting and adding to the core colour palette.
The 'ziggurat' motif itself was also revitalised, avoiding any superfluous features that were becoming compromised in pixel and/or print processes. The results gave the brand a newly manifest confidence and vibrancy.
