New Style

HSE University has developed a new brand book featuring an upgraded brand logo, a new deep blue colour, and new fonts. Arseniy Meshcheryakov, Head of the HSE Art and Design School and contributor to the development of the new brand book, talked to HSE Life about why the university is adjusting its corporate identity, how it will be implemented, why old universities stick to traditions, and why people follow fashion.

— HSE University is restyling its corporate identity. Why is this necessary?

— HSE University is a dynamically developing institution. There have been no changes to its corporate identity for a long time. The style has become a bit old-fashioned, which is not typical for HSE University at all. At the same time, I believe that a full-scale rebranding isn’t necessary and could even be detrimental. The HSE University brand logo has become very well known and is now one of the most recognizable logos among Russian universities. Therefore, we worked to make the brand more dynamic, but without radically changing anything.

— So is there continuity between the new style and the existing corporate identity that’s become so familiar?

— Of course. This was our main task working with the university PR Office.

— The corporate colour is still blue, but the new shade is much darker. One of the HSE Art and Design School presentations noted that universities that use darker, richer colours in their corporate identity place higher in international rankings. It’s a humorous observation, but was there a need to introduce a new colour?

— We noted this correlation, although we can hardly call the observation scientific. As for the new colour, I would first of all draw attention to the fact that for many years, there was no single corporate colour at HSE University.

We used different variations, lighter and darker shades. Sometimes, the shade of blue ended up lighter on certain types of products. Therefore, we decided to return to a deep blue shade. Going back to that humorous observation, I would like to note that, in fact, universities often intuitively choose richer colours, which are associated with greater depth, content, and respectability. These are important things for educational institutions. Light colours can work better in other areas.

— Why do many universities take a very conservative approach to their corporate identity—sometimes without changing anything for decades? When introducing innovations, why do they try to stick to tradition?

— Which universities don’t change their branding and symbols? Ones that, as a rule, have existed for centuries and whose brands are heraldic symbols and coats of arms. If you use one of these, you can skip rebranding and remain traditional. This emphasizes long-standing traditions, history and reputation. Universities, as cultural and scientific institutions, understand heraldry and try to preserve these traditions. However, when modern institutions try to create their own heraldry, it looks wild and cannot be approved—everything should have its place.

— A whole family of branded fonts has been developed for the updated style. Why did you decide to make them from scratch?

— I have been working at HSE University for more than 10 years, and it has been clear for quite a long time that in addition to a brand name, such a huge and complex organization needs some kind of unified identity, a stylistically unified element that can be applied by all departments without exception. All over the world, one of these elements is the font. Fonts have a huge culture that may not always stand out, but experts always pay attention to it.

Today, all large companies and organizations commission branded fonts from font agencies to increase their recognition. We made the logical decision and started working in this area. We entrusted the development to our lecturer Dmitry Chernogaev and one of the leading Russian experts in fonts, Yury Gordon. It was largely an experiment by the Art and Design School—one which, in my opinion, was completely successful.

Several presentations were delivered at one of the latest HSE University academic councils. I was glad to see that one of HSE’s departments was already using the new corporate fonts in its presentation, and it was obvious to me as a specialist that it visually looked much better and fit better into the corporate identity than other presentations using arbitrary fonts. Gradually, without too much pressure, the new fonts and corporate identity will spread throughout HSE University.

— You mentioned that HSE University is a large and complex university with many departments. Is it necessary to maintain some kind of visual difference between them, or is a single corporate identity still necessary?

— Of course, we need a single style. The problem is that due to the scale of the university, it is impossible to force everyone to switch to the same standard at once. It is impossible, for example, to change all the signs at once. Even Sber can't do it. In my opinion, the transition to a single corporate identity, to a new brand book, is a gradual process.

Those engaged in developing and coordinating the transition to the new corporate identity (HSE Art and Design School, HSE PR Office, etc) must create certain templates for departments to use in their work. At the same time, we should dismiss the old elements. If a department has decided to make merchandise of some kind, we should offer them a template customized to their needs. I would also like to emphasize that having a corporate identity means ensuring a certain quality of the products that the university produces. Centralization is good when it offers solutions, not when it limits opportunities.

— How much does the corporate identity affect perceptions of the university? Can it, for example, make the university more popular among applicants?

— On the one hand, a university’s corporate identity is the most important thing it has. On the other hand, HSE's corporate identity includes everything that has been created over its thirty years, including the quality of education and reputation. The task of the graphic corporate identity is to represent this profound stylistic concept and the university’s values without spoiling them with something trivial. That said, this is rather difficult to achieve.

— HSE is one of several organizations that have recently announced a change of corporate identity and rebranding: Beeline, VK, Facebook (which has changed its name to Meta) and others. Would you say there is a post-pandemic trend for renewal, or is it part of an ongoing process?

— It’s an ongoing process. If we look back through news archives, we can see that large companies regularly rebrand. Sber has already done it twice, Beeline has done it three times, etc. Fashion and trends change. The fashion industry, which holds shows twice a year, decides what people will wear, and people who follow fashion trends update their wardrobes twice a year. Fashion is a mysterious aspect of our society, one that suddenly decides what is right for today.

Sometimes, the process happens due to technological revolutions, while other times it is irrational. Rebranding is a constant process, and HSE University—which deals with much more meaningful things than clothing—has become an unfashionably dressed professor. Its suit is a little outdated, so now it will be updated. Plus, we need to think about students: we need to create a line of merchandise that will be partly traditional, yet fashionable. I would also like to note that large corporate rebranding projects are often shockingly expensive. HSE University follows its own path: our rebranding takes place internally, with student involvement. There is no burden on the university budget. The most fashionable people are those who decide on their own image. It may be more difficult, but it's more interesting and meaningful.

December 01, 2021