Opinion BY Armin

IC, UC, We all C for California

Established in 1868, the University of California (UC) is the public university system of the state of California that encompasses ten campuses: Berkeley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Davis, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Cruz, and Merced. Rarely will people say they attend or teach (past or present) at “UC” or “University of California”, they are usually very specific as to which campus — its most well known probably being Berkeley and UCLA — so UC and University of California are more of a parent company. UC “includes more than 220,000 students and more than 170,000 faculty and staff, with more than 1.5 million alumni living and working around the world.” So, it’s big. Starting in September, UC introduced a new logo and identity. No design credit given. And no specifications shared as to how, or if at all, this logo affects the unique logos of each of the ten campuses. Currently, the identity has been rolled out in an admissions website separate from the main site, a campaign website for an initiative called Onward California, and on another (see Stanford) very nice brand mini site.

Update: It has been confirmed that the design — everything from the logo to the video to the applications — was carried in-house, by an 11-person creative team formed about three and a half years ago. The post has also been updated with quotes from the team. (Full credits at the end.)

Continue reading this entry