On 2 May, the TU Bergakademie officially receives its new corporate design. Identity, recognisability and strengthening of the brand were at the forefront of the creative development process. Not only has the print presence been modernised, but the design guidelines will also be applied to the university's new website.
The University's previous corporate design had been in place since 2013 and primarily regulated the use cases in the print segment of university communication. Digital communication channels have since evolved and established themselves as an equally important component in the University's appearance and communication. This revision of the design guidelines by an internal project group of the Department of University Communication under the leadership of Dr. Sabine Schellbach increasingly takes these and other developments into account. The University's new corporate design was developed for the digital and analogue worlds. The concept was presented to the University's committees, discussed and further developed step by step.
More creative, more intuitive and with more services in the future
The aim of the re-fresh was to preserve the tried and tested so as not to create a break with the previous appearance and at the same time to do justice to the developments of the university and newer demands on current communication tasks. In order to express the university character, scientific rationality and intellectual depth, we rely on a clear, open design that merely sets the framework for the diverse contents and facets of the university. In addition to the typography, the new TU brand logo, the profile and accent colours as well as identity-creating design elements such as "the trapezium", the "university silhouette" and the "TUBAF watermark" are style-defining.
The TU brand logo as the core element of the university's corporate design, now consists of the modified seal, the acronym "TUBAF" for Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg and the addition "Die Ressourcenuniversität. Since 1765". The abbreviation "TUBAF" is already established within the university and will in future be increasingly communicated as a brand within Germany and internationally. The new seal shows an amalgamation of the miner's tusk and the hut's cutlery. This results in a unique graphic element that stands for the unique position of the university's profile: for holistic solutions of a sustainable circular economy - from exploration, extraction, processing and use to recycling. By editing the lettering in the surrounding circle, the seal is easier to grasp, no longer small-scale, and the "Bergakademie" and what the university stands for as a resource university can be grasped more clearly on the basis of the prominent symbolism.
Print and web under one visual roof
The University's future website is also getting a new design based on the design guidelines. The web relaunch focuses on a more target group-oriented structure. The relaunch process also includes an update of the web CMS Drupal to the latest Drupal version. The update is necessary because there is no longer sufficient support and service for the current version.
Templates and instructions
In addition to information, explanations and examples, the information portal also provides university staff with initial templates and downloads for applying the new design guidelines. The download database contains logo templates, the new TU silhouette, the new basic element "trapezoid" for free scaling, icons and symbols as well as infographics on the TU. The templates will be expanded step by step. Accessible .dotx templates are planned for notices, announcements and other applications. Image material is available to all university members in the new media database TUBAFmedia. The database can be accessed via the university account.
- Design guidelines and templates
- Media database TUBAFmedia
Further procedure with existing materials
The new design guideline will be introduced gradually over a transition period of 1.5 years. Existing materials such as letterheads will be used up by then. Only in exceptional cases will an early update take place. Stocks of notepads and TU folders are still available in the Media Centre. These can be collected free of charge from the media centre reception (Prüferstraße 1) and used for internal office consumption.