This project, is perhaps the most dear to my heart. Whether it’s because it was done for my university or that it consumed my life for the greater part of a year, I’m not sure. Whatever the reason, this project presented a unique set of challenges I had never faced before when working on a brand. It required less of a visual solution and more of a strategic solution.
About Texas A&M
Home to more than 50,000 students, ranking as the sixth-largest university in the country, with more than 360,000 former students worldwide.
Holds membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, one of only 61 institutions with this distinction.
Conducts research valued at more than $689 million annually, placing it among the top 20 universities nationally and third behind only MIT and the University of California at Berkeley for universities without medical schools.
Has an endowment valued at more than $5 billion, which ranks fourth among U.S. public universities and 10th overall.
Named second in the nation by The Wall Street Journal among all universities, public and private, in a survey of top U.S. corporations, non-profits and government agencies, based on graduates that recruiters prefer to hire.
About the Project
Texas A&M University is a massive organization with hundreds of different research institutes & offices. This doesn’t even include educational departments and colleges. Each of these requiring its own logo. Due to its massive size, many of the design and marketing functions are decentralized. Thus, over time many colleges and departments began exploring and using their own logos which did not coordinate with the Texas A&M University brand.
Ultimately, the challenge was to create a unifying mark or brand architecture that can be used to unify all aspects of Texas A&M University and still promote the university itself.
I wasn’t the first person asked to solve this problem. Some extremely prestigious and talented agencies were first asked to take a crack at it. This was the final solution prior to my involvement.
Previous Architecture
This solution treated Texas A&M University similar to a Fortune 500 company. It created a set of rules in which the university name came first followed by each name in the hierarchy leading down to the organization which required the logo. Each level in the hierarchy received its own type treatment giving it distinction from other levels in the logo.
This system, although not visually appealing, did provide some advantages.
- Organized
- Easy to implement
- Unified
Reason for Failure
Unfortunately, it also provides some disadvantages. One in particular stood out above all others. This architecture neglected to allow smaller branches of Texas A&M University to promote themselves. It placed the university on a pedestal and treated all its members as afterthoughts. This feeling of neglect or rather, just the inability to promote themselves, led many departments and colleges to create their own logos.
Strategy
Under the guidance of Creative Director, Kim Miller, it was clear a new strategy was needed. This new strategy had to accomplish the following:
- Promote Texas A&M University
- Provide a cohesive brand architecture to all levels
- Flexible and extendable
- Simple
- Easy to Implement
Other Universities
A study of 15 top ranked and recognized universities was conducted. During this study, everything from typefaces to name structures was analyzed. In addition, we also examined the treatment of different university departments and how they promoted themselves.
Proposed Solutions
After completing the study, several solutions were proposed, each with its own set of pros and cons.
Non-Negotiables
Once each proposal was analyzed, several items were continually named as a necessity to be included in the final solution. These non-negotiables became the foundation for the final solution.
Refined solution
Building upon the non-negotiables, a new system was developed that allowed for extreme flexibility. This would allow different branches to quickly and easily develop their own mark, while still abiding by the Texas A&M University Brand.
At first glance, this new system may seem completely unorganized, and in a way, it is. Despite it’s unorganized look, it still maintains a consistent pattern, which allows its owners to all look similar and yet have a different look. Additionally, because of its simplicity, the new architecture allows designer to get creative. The logo can be used in different colors depending on the background. It can be screened. It can be used as a negative. The design options are almost limitless. That’s the beauty of this system. Every logo is related, but different enough to meet each branch’s unique needs.
Typeface
During the final refining process of this project, the creation of a custom typeface was explored. The typeface was heavily based on Frutiger with some minor change. During its development process, the typeface was ultimately deemed as being another layer of complication and potentially a hinderance to some of the different levels of Texas A&M University.
Results
Although this project wasn’t the most visually stimulating, it was still strategically successful. From a university standpoint, the new brand architecture is extremely flexible while still maintaining its cohesion. From the standpoint of the university’s many parts, this architecture provides them with the flexibility needed to promote themselves and the university at the same time.
Perhaps the biggest testament to this project’s success is the fact that within its first weeks many of the university’s branches began implementing the new architecture.
