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Logo's most important element is you

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Respecting and learning from the past: As part of Western’s visual identity review, Hahn Smith Design combed through the archives to see how the university has been represented throughout its 133-year history.

American design guru Michael Bierut put it best: “Logos on their own, particularly new ones, don’t mean that much in and of themselves.”

Don’t get me wrong.

Western’s much-needed rebrand comes at a critical point in our history. A once regional university has earned a national reputation for providing an experience second to none. That reputation can only strengthen as we build partnerships with universities around the globe.

If we want to make Western more broadly known, however, one thing about our visual identity is abundantly clear:

We need to simplify.

At last count, Western uses more than 70 different logos to promote itself to the world. That’s not including the dozens used by student groups and clubs.

Websites, brochures, bulletin boards, research posters all displaying different names, symbols, fonts and colours. Disparate logos used inconsistently water down the important stories Western needs to tell.

In response, we hired a strategic marketing firm, Level5, to help determine our brand positioning – bringing clarity to what makes Western unique. Secondly, we conducted a full review and redesign of our visual identity in partnership with Hahn Smith Design, an award-winning agency based in Toronto.

Throughout our brand journey we tried to get as much feedback from as many stakeholders as possible.

And what results is a logo that is respectful of our past, with some modern elements added to make it more relevant and more easily reproduced – especially in today’s digital world.

But, as Bierut suggests, a new logo won’t put Western on the world stage. It’s the plan and how we use the logo that will “start to create value around it.”

It will be the messaging we build. The stories we tell. The discoveries our researchers make. The care our professors take in teaching our bright students. And it will be our students, who through transformative learning experiences, in big cities and in remote villages thousands of kilometres from home, will leave here as our best ambassadors.

Together, as faculty, staff, students and alumni, we will bring value to this new visual identity. Together, we are the Western story.

We hope you will embrace this new identity. Wear it proudly. But more importantly, we hope you will continue to help us tell the Western story.

Your voices are indeed our most valuable asset.

Terry Rice is Western’s director of marketing and creative services and the art director for the Alumni Gazette.

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The Process

A visual identity engagement website was home-base that kept all stakeholders in the loop on our process, as well as opportunities to engage in surveys, and send us direct feedback.

• 4,995 survey responses
• 9 workshops with faculty, staff, students and alumni
• 154 student iPad interviews on campus
• 63 one-on-one interviews with internal and external stakeholders

What we learned?

• You call us ‘Western’
• Lose purple at our peril
• You value our history and tradition

Anatomy of Our New Identity

THE NAME: WESTERN UNIVERSITY
86 per cent of survey respondents called us Western, which is more true to our original name - The Western University of London, Ontario

THE COLOUR
Is purple! A slight move from Pantone 266 to 268 makes it darker and richer.

THE FONT
A custom-made serif font, truly unique to Western. We’re calling the font Hellmuth in honour of our founder, Bishop Isaac Hellmuth.

UNIVERSITY • CANADA
It’s important people know Western is a university in Canada, as some outside our country may not be familiar with us.

IN REVERSE
A simple key line around the outside of the shield makes the logo work well on dark backgrounds while keeping the integrity of the rest of the logo intact.

THE SHIELD

Rising sun – made more stylized (less like a fire ball)
Book of knowledge – Western’s founding date of 1878 has been added
Stag – The stag comes from the City of London’s coat of arms. We are proud to be located in London, Ontario and have made the stag more active than the previous version
Demi lion – The demi lion is from the coat of arms of Canon Alfred Peache who in 1878 gave an endowment that made possible the establishment of Huron College. Peache would become Western’s second Chancellor.
Maple leaf – Repositioning the stag opposite the demi lion allowed us to include a maple leaf.  Western can represent itself internationally and be proud of our great country.

To learn more please visit:
www.communications.uwo.ca/brandnew

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