Visual brand identity unveiled for future University of Johannesburg

The January merger will make the University of Johannesburg the largest residential university in the country, with more than 45 000 students and 3 500 staff members. It will also be a comprehensive university, offering a range of qualifications including certificates, diplomas, B-degrees, Doctorates and Master courses.

After months of strategising, process work and collaborative effort between the brand development role players, the UJ's brand identity has been finalised. The logo that has been unveiled is reflective of everything the university will stand for: academic excellence, cultural diversity, global credibility, stature, and freedom. In essence it will illustrate the holistic educational experience afforded by UJ, according to the new University.

The Joint Merger Steering Committee appointed Interbrand Sampson and Zanusi Brand Solutions in a joint venture to develop this new brand. Both parties bring with them extensive experience in their respective fields of expertise, thereby creating a formidable and comprehensive team, well positioned to develop the new UJ brand.
Says Giles Shepherd, managing director of Interbrand Sampson: "Designing a brand is a great deal more than simply creating a visual manifestation. This is because a brand is essentially a mixture of both tangible and intangible assets. We embarked on the development of a strategic Brand Platform, which was informed by a comprehensive perceptual audit amongst all stakeholder groups. In turn, the powerful and differentiated strategy we created informed and gave rise to this exciting new identity."

The visual brand identity that the new UJ has approved encapsulates the merger's strategic intent and is a combination of carefully selected colours and textures typical of the Johannesburg landscape, and striking imagery that is representative of Jo'burg's character. The resultant product is a powerful brand identity with all of its elements aiming to portray a sense of liberty, illustrate unity and a celebration of the human spirit, as well as incorporate a feeling of new energy and an open book of knowledge.

The logo denotes two rusty orange birds, linked and facing each other, representative of the union of the two respected and recognised institutions into a powerful new force. The connotations of a bird include concepts like freedom at academic, personal and social levels; independence; success; dignity; and mobility, all of which closely support the core values of the UJ.

The University will also be characterised particularly by accessibility and mobility. It will provide greater accessibility to higher education, present a variety of academic and technological programmes, and create new study possibilities by making articulation between programmes possible. This also takes into account the essential interaction that will be encouraged between the academic learning environment and society, and supports the mission of the University, which includes partnerships with communities. It is the ability of birds to adapt to their changing environment that should serve as an example for the new institution, which will have to keep up with the changes in both higher education and society at large.

The abstract graphic element between the birds' heads, denoting the torch of learning, is symbolic of diversity and the comprehensive range of different qualifications, from certificates, diplomas, degrees, and master's to doctoral degrees, all of which can be obtained at the University. It is also intended to illustrate the gravitas of a serious institution of learning.

In the centre of the logo, through the creative use of space, the illusion of an open book is created, representative of the book of knowledge. It is up to the beholder of the logo to notice that the space between the birds takes the shape of a book, thereby experiencing that learning and knowledge generation imply an interactive process. Its clean openness is indicative of the fact that students and lecturers are co-writers of the book. The continual development and renewal of knowledge, as well as the infinity of the learning process, are also represented by this image. The openness of the book also depicts the absence of a distinction between academic and technological learning, thus symbolically bridging the existing binary divide.

In creating the new UJ brand, Interbrand Sampson and Zanusi Brand Solutions embarked on a three-phase development process. The first being a Discovery Phase, during which period both the internal and external stakeholder groups were consulted.

Views, feelings, needs and concerns were all captured and once analysed, formed the basis for phase two, the Strategic Development Phase.

Nomahlubi Simamane, Managing Director of Zanusi Brand Solutions, explains that the core of the University of Johannesburg strategy rests squarely on being a powerfully differentiated brand in a highly competitive world where very much the same services are generally available in many different places, and at the same price.

"Creating preference is key," says Simamane. "Providing a compelling reason to believe in a brand through emotive differentiators is the only way to ensure a brand can stand out of the clutter and become preferred by its target markets. We have carefully identified what it is that makes this incredible new university so powerful and unique, and articulated that into a strategy that will ensure it can go from strength to strength."

During this second phase, a comprehensive strategy was fleshed out to optimally position the new UJ brand according to its greater environment and in line with its combined business objectives and vision.

The third and final phase was the developmental Visual Identity Phase. At this point a powerful visual identity was created. As part of phase three, a series of two-hour workshops were held over a four week period with both students and lecturers in the marketing and design disciplines. These discussion forums enabled the creative team to gather intrinsic opinions and to use the comments from the workshops to formulate a design brief.

Shepherd says that, "As with any process where an icon is being developed that must both resonate in the hearts and minds of stakeholders and live on to bear testimony to the brand, there was healthy debate about the symbolism and iconography that would be used. After much work-shopping and consultative forum discussion, it was finally agreed that a bird would form the core of the design. There was consensus that the bird's connotations of flight, achievement, freedom, independence, dignity and mobility best represent the education opportunities offered by the UJ."

Whilst the commercial and academic face of the institution must be more serious, the symbol worn by the UJ's sporting teams, can afford to be more relaxed, fun and even cheeky. The Interbrand Sampson / Zanusi team were thus faced with the task of intrinsically linking the two identities and in turn elevating the image of the sporting codes beyond their traditional status. This led to the development of a unique and distinctive character for sport that can easily be adapted for each discipline. This logo effectively creates a UJ mascot which the masses can identify with, while its expression of determination and tenacity sends a message of strength, spunk and being a winner.

The new institution aims to be a truly South African university, with its standards comparable to the best in the world, while accommodating the multicultural needs and aspirations of its diverse student base.

"The university will be proudly South African: embracing diversity through respect for all its stakeholders. It will be transformation-driven, dynamic and innovatively responsive to our continuously changing environment on all levels," says recently appointed Interim-Vice Chancellor, Prof Roux Botha.

The aim of the University of Johannesburg will not be to blur the distinction between academic and technology degrees, but rather to extend the range of possible learning opportunities, while maintaining international standards.

Over and above this, the new University of Johannesburg is committed to improving the quality of life of all the people it touches, including society at large. This by establishing and maintaining a culture of lifelong learning, while also providing teaching and learning opportunities that will empower people - and this is essentially the concept which the new corporate identity aims to reflect.

For further information on the new University of Johannesburg, visit www.ujhb.ac.za .