SCAD Rebrand with Vignelli
Massimo Vignelli Workshop
Massimo Vignelli Workshop
This project was created as part of a 7 day workshop collaboration with master designer Massimo Vignelli. The goal was to study the Vignelli methodology first-hand and apply his principles to the redesign of SCAD's identity. The project was designed, produced, photographed and presented to an audience in 6 days.
PROBLEM:
I found several aspects of SCAD's current identity to be problematic. The name fails to give equal weight to each of the school's distinctive, yet complimentary locations. "Savannah College of Art and Design" is confusing when applied to its Hong Kong, Lacoste and Atlanta campuses. There was also an unmet need to reflect the schools dual goals of excellence in arts education and career preparation in its identity system.
SOLUTION:
I developed a system with the aim of bringing discipline, consistency, logic and order to SCAD's identity and branded materials. This system takes into account the college as a whole, its 4 locations, 8 schools and 41 majors. The school's name has been challenged in order to make it more appropriate to what it represents today. The type placement and variation in weight creates ambiguity in the identity. The name can be read "College of Art & Design, Savannah" as well as "College of Savannah, Art & Design".
The system follows a grid, but allows room for deviation when appropriate. Color serves as a device to differentiate between campuses. Green, orange, purple, blue and yellow, represent Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong, and eLearning, respectively. Red represents all information regarding the school as a whole.
PROBLEM:
I found several aspects of SCAD's current identity to be problematic. The name fails to give equal weight to each of the school's distinctive, yet complimentary locations. "Savannah College of Art and Design" is confusing when applied to its Hong Kong, Lacoste and Atlanta campuses. There was also an unmet need to reflect the schools dual goals of excellence in arts education and career preparation in its identity system.
SOLUTION:
I developed a system with the aim of bringing discipline, consistency, logic and order to SCAD's identity and branded materials. This system takes into account the college as a whole, its 4 locations, 8 schools and 41 majors. The school's name has been challenged in order to make it more appropriate to what it represents today. The type placement and variation in weight creates ambiguity in the identity. The name can be read "College of Art & Design, Savannah" as well as "College of Savannah, Art & Design".
The system follows a grid, but allows room for deviation when appropriate. Color serves as a device to differentiate between campuses. Green, orange, purple, blue and yellow, represent Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong, and eLearning, respectively. Red represents all information regarding the school as a whole.
MR. VIGNELLI'S COMMENTS AFTER PRESENTATION OF PROJECT:
"You've done a terrific project. Terrific. It shows competence. It shows maturity. The most interesting thing is that you have tackled the issue of the name. That is very important. When we say Savannah college of Design Atlanta, it is confusing. When we say Savannah college of Design at Savannah, it's redundant. So what you have done there, you've got to the essence [College of Art & Design] and you played with the use of the typeface in such a way that provides the articulation within the identity. You've done an excellent job. Really terrific. One of the best I've seen in a long time. Congratulations."
"You've done a terrific project. Terrific. It shows competence. It shows maturity. The most interesting thing is that you have tackled the issue of the name. That is very important. When we say Savannah college of Design Atlanta, it is confusing. When we say Savannah college of Design at Savannah, it's redundant. So what you have done there, you've got to the essence [College of Art & Design] and you played with the use of the typeface in such a way that provides the articulation within the identity. You've done an excellent job. Really terrific. One of the best I've seen in a long time. Congratulations."
