Colleges, schools or any other educational institution devoted to design and art must, in one way or another, reflect its commitment to those areas — specifically, its identity must lead by example. Like MICA or Ringling College of Art and Design, just to name a couple we have reviewed here, MassArt is embracing the influence that a revitalized identity can have in the perception of an arts and design institution. This is specially important for a 135-year-old institution — the first and only independent public college of art in the United States, and the first art school to grant a degree — that has to compete with dozens of other schools that don't carry the weight of more than a century.
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Henry Steiner, a one-time student of Paul Rand and designer of the HSBC logo, is the latest contemporary designer to alter a Paul Rand logo with a redesign for the once-named Europeiska Ferieskolan — now called Education First. Rand's original logo was, well, a Rand design — perhaps not as superb as, say, IBM or UPS, but still smart, beautifully crafted and timeless. The redesign was commissioned to integrate "Education First" into the mark, to allow room for the product/service name to be locked-up, and to provide EF with a logo "…to represent all of our products around the world." Steiner's design retains the foundation of the Rand mark and executes the update around it with careful craftsmanship. When the logo is set with a product name the neutrally-toned typography finds a good visual balance. The drop shadow is an extra visual element that while not necessarily helping the semantics of the mark (it plays more contrast to the concentric circles than support) does help alleviate the blue box from being a visually flat containing shape. While, by default, I wish to keep Rand's work from being sent to the graveyard or going under the knife, this rebranding accomplishes the goals set out by the client and at the same time retains the equity that had been established by Rand — and, at least, this logo was not subject to to gradients, shines, and bevels.
When I was younger and living in Mexico City I used to have a constant tan due to my family's recurring vacations in the seaside town of Acapulco and the ever present sun amplified by Mexico's choking pollution. Because of that, and because I grew up in a Jewish community where everybody's skin hue was remarkably light, my nickname was "Negro" (pronounced, more or less, "neh-graw") or its diminutive version, "Negrito" ("neh-gree-taw") for closer friends. To this day, my parents still call me that. But just at home or on the phone. When I first moved to the U.S. and was working for Internet conglomerate marchFIRST, my dad was worried that during our e-mail exchanges someone scanning our correspondence would think that using the word Negro or Negrito was done in a pejorative way. In the last seven years, my lovely tan has distilled due to all the fluorescent light and lack of sunlight and, certainly, no one here in the U.S. would call me by my old nickname so it is now a thing of the past — and something that the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) hopes to achieve soon with its first major rebranding since 1972, lead by Landor Associates.
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The mention of "art school" as a choice in higher education carries with it the stereotype of a classroom full of high school outcasts sketching a nude model. Yes, a sarcastic and outdated notion easy to refute, but a real hurdle nonetheless. And the newly named Ringling College of Art and Design knew that its previous moniker, Ringling School of Art and Design — coined in 1933, two years after the college was originally established as, big breath, The School of Fine and Applied Art of the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum — was not the best option to represent a thriving private institution that has grown from a 3-building campus to one that houses more than 80 in 35 acres and serves 1,090 students. Ringling must also realize that it faces stiff competition in the boutique undergraduate education in design from the likes of RISD, Art Center, SCAD, MICA and others who also happen to have strong visual identities of their own. So this past April, Ringling changed its name and unveiled a new identity that will be ready to roll at the start of the upcoming school year.
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From the Department of No Way I Would Have Ever Known Without Someone On The Inside Filling Me In comes this tale of identity change from the deepest corners of Canada. To add to the intrigue, our informant wishes to remain anonymous.
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From simple things like finding a lucky penny to stumbling across a beautiful building, life supplies many unexpected surprises and serendipitous moments. Seeing the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) new identity was both of these for me: I saw rhythm, simplicity, and a catchy acronym. Upon further exploration I found an intelligent, remarkable, and sophisticated mark.
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Guest Editorial by Felix Sockwell
Chances are you've participated in a talent contest. Hell, you may have even voted for Sanjaya Malakar. Kids, futures, democracy… it's all serious business worth voting for. Behold the winning entry (designed free) among more than 275 designs submitted by district students and staff members.
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Over the years I have emphasized to our authors (and myself) how important it is to tell the story of an identity, frame it in context (even if brief), form an opinion of the subject matter and to avoid pithy, sarcastic posts a la Gawker. So it is with a slap to my own wrist that I post this with no points of reference, no story, no press release links or otherwise relevant information. But I seriously have no idea what's going on here nor do I feel compelled to expend more energy than necessary on this. This being the logo for No Child Left Behind, unveiled sometime in mid-January. Sigh.
Thanks to Delaina Biernstein for the tip.
Guest Editorial by John Feldhouse
It's refreshing to see an academic institution embrace and invest in a new identity — and in local design. Portland State University (PSU) recently unveiled their new mark created by Portland-based Sockeye Creative, Inc..
Perhaps one of the most underrated and overlooked aspects of identity design is that done for universities. Typically typographic-driven, these identities are low-key and rarely too distinct; understated and elegant is the name of the game; and "a workhorse" is the most sought-after quality, as the identity must accommodate dozens of programs, schools, divisions and more in hundreds of applications. Coming up with unique and proprietary characteristics for a university wordmark is usually the challenge. In its elongated R and funny-serifed U, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has found an identity that saves it from 20 years of different and inconsistent identities.
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