ABOUT

Since our last organisational strategy was published 2022, we have had a change in leadership which included updating our strategy. Over 4 weeks in February 2022 and completely remotely, UAL Creative worked with a group of 9 students on the previous visual identity.


The brief

Our refreshed 2032 strategy places creative education at the core, aims to reduce complexity and is flexing to a rapidly changing Higher Education and Creative Industry landscape against the backdrop of a turbulent global climate. The visual identity supporting communications about these changes needed to reflect this and help emotionally build a connection between where we had been and where we are going in a way that is relevant to who we are as an organisation.


The creative idea

A connection to the past, adapting for the future.

Working on this in-house and being resourceful with what had gone before allowed the organisation to pivot quickly in a cost and time effective way. This also offered a level of continuity by further developing the lead render from our 2022 strategy. We aimed to respond visually to the main themes of the strategy itself — putting creative education at the core, represented by the central lilac colour part of the sculpture — and striping away complexity and increasing transparency, represented by the surrounding clear ‘liquid’ layers of movement and support wrapping around our core mission. All of these elements previously existed in the 3D render and with slight change in colour and viewing angles we were able to create a very different tone and visual outcome.


The creative process

Asia Domagalska, Junior Designer, who was in the original cohort of students responding to the design brief in 2022, had since joined our team as an embedded Arts Temp, helped us to maintain a sense of connection to the past and continuity in reimagining the visual design system for our new strategic direction.

"Working on the UAL strategy renders as part of the Creative team was such a full-circle moment for me. When I was in my final year at university, I applied to the job through Arts Temps which invited students to create 3D sculptures. I thought it was such a great, exciting idea! I didn't have very much 3D design experience back then, just ideas and a willingness to learn but the brief was so fun and allowed for so much creative freedom that I was able to explore and learn through play, and I loved every second of it. The creative team were incredibly encouraging and supportive throughout the project. Having such a clear brief, defined deliverables and clear expectations from the start made it much more managable and exciting. It was so fun collaborating with students from other courses as well and seeing the amazing work they created using the software."
— Asia Domagalska, Junior Designer, UAL Creative

As we learned more about the content and strategy itself, we approached the creative in the same way. What we could take away without loosing meaning? What do we want to draw attention to? The original 3D render by Kat Peterson in 2022 revealed so much more for us to work with when we applied these same ideas to a visual practice: we highlighted the core by using colour here, reduced the number of elements in the render, added transparency where there wasn't before. We also added movement — something which wasn't included before, representing the shifting context and also offering different view points on the same idea, all of which are in the spirit of our 2032 strategy.

"A few years later, I found myself back at UAL but this time as a more permanent member of the team and the renders project came around again. It felt very significant to return to something I had been able to do as a student but now with more experience and a completely different perspective. I was asked to rework one of the original sculptures and give it a fresh new look. We built on a render by Kat Peterson, who had also taken part in the first round of the project and created this beautiful exploding sphere. It was such a rewarding experience to revisit the original artwork and transform it into something new."
— Asia Domagalska, Junior Designer, UAL Creative


Roll out

The visual system is a framework,visually representing 1 overarching strategy with 5 pillars, and 2 sub strategies for Education and Research and Knowledge Exchange. It visually supports internal and external communications related to the strategy bringing continuity and curiosity to the messaging.





Project team

Communications
Ella Joyce Head of Staff Communications and Engagement

Student collaborator 2022
Kat Petersons 2023 BA Design for Branded Spaces, London College of Communication, UAL

Creative
Asia Domagalska she/her/hers, Arts Temp Junior Designer, 2021 BA Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communication, UAL
Lily Forbes she/her/hers, Midweight Designer, 2020 BA Graphic Design Communication, Chelsea College of Arts, UAL
Stephanie Feather she/her/hers, Head of Creative, 2008 BA Graphic Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL