Undergraduate Art & Design student, Naomi Brierley, was thrilled to have the opportunity to provide a new logo and visual identity to the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), one of the most prominent research institutes at the University of Alberta.
Professor Sue Colberg teaches Naomi's class, and recalls how KIAS Director, Geoffrey Rockwell, approached them for a new visual identity.
"They have an important anniversary coming up and thought it would be a good time to 'refresh' their branding," said Colberg. "It was a challenging project in that it had to look and feel scholarly, appeal to humanities, sciences, and social sciences researchers and various other stakeholder groups. It also had to be contemporary looking while feeling 'institutional,' and work with the University's visual identity system."
Colberg's students were tasked with designing the identity and a booklet of 'Usage Guidelines' showing logo versions, technical specifications and "do's and don'ts" of application, culminating in a final presentation to KIAS as a real world client. Ultimately Brierley's work made the final selection.
"Logo design is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of graphic design," says Brierley. "Coming up with a symbol that represents the personality and values of an entire organization is always daunting to me in the beginning, but after hours of sketching and refining, it's so exciting to see the logo I've produced being used in the real world."
Brierley and her classmates work on many branding projects throughout their four-year program, which continually challenges them to try new things while refining their process.
"Most of our projects are based on fictional scenarios, so I always jump at the opportunity to take on a real client project," she says. "We were very lucky to work with the Kule Institute, as they are an organization that does important work supporting research and interdisciplinary connections in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences."
For more information about KIAS, visit their official page here.