After four years of the previous brand look and feel in the market, Swinburne collectively decided it was time for a ‘refresh.’

Swinburne wanted the brand to ‘grow up’ and evolve from their previous look and feel. Whilst also evolving their brand positioning – changing the emphasis in the belief from ‘clarity and confidence’ to the ‘adventure worth having.’ Part of the brief was to differentiate substantially from the other universities in Melbourne and position themselves in students minds as the ‘Regret Nothing’ university. Based on the insight that University is for the experiences and adventure.

Using the structure of the existing style guide (which I created), our brief was to deliver an easy-to-follow guide for designers and internal teams wishing to implement the Swinburne brand. Which can allow Swinburne to build upon where necessary.

To assist the brand with it’s ‘grow up’ evolution and ‘Regret Nothing’ positioning. We chose to use bold and heavy typography combined with intense photography and a vibrant yellow brand colour that all together demand attention. Yellow not used by any other university in Melbourne became an essential component used in the new brand look and feel. Legibility of brand messaging and headlines were of high importance so developing a holding device for typography helped make it easy to design attention-demanding headlines for any designer.