CLIENT
University of Texas at Austin Living Learning Communities
Aaron Voyles, Residence Halls Operations Director
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The University of Texas at Austin will be introducing Living Learning Communities starting the Fall of 2017. The communities include: Global Living, Healthy Lifestyles, Women in Engineering, Sustainable Living, and Women of Natural Sciences.
Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are residential communities that introduce and integrate academic and social learning through faculty/staff involvement and holistic education. LLCs at UT are designed to create a greater sense of community through increased interactions around specific topics. Students living in LLCs live together in the same area of a residence hall and share experiences that reinforce the theme of their community. Some LLCs may involve required classes or majors, while others are open to students interested in a particular lifestyle or topic.
When the head designer and I met with the client, Aaron Voyles, he expressed he would like a design that is approachable, “business casual” but also conveys prestigious academic excellence. He also mentioned that in the future he would want to place the logo on a lapel pin to award the graduates of each community.
RESEARCH AND DESIGN PROCESS
After reading the creative brief and meeting with Aaron, I imagined the logo as a classic shield or crest with laurels but with an updated twist. I felt the logo should have a modern and minimalist design, while also being organic. I sketched out some designs of a shield concept as well as a few different options. I started with the same outline of the University of Texas at Austin shield and added the outline of organic laurels framing the bottom half of the shield. After presenting my sketches to the Head Designer, I then scanned the chosen sketches and imported them into Illustrator. In illustrator, I used the pen tool to vectorize the hand drawn sketches to have an outline of the logo to further define.
TYPEFACE
The typeface used for the LLC acronym, Espacio Novo, was selected due to its modern quality paired with its serif accents. LLC was centered inside the shield and I adjusted the kerning accordingly. The second typeface, Gotham, was selected because it is a clean, modern san serif that is easily legible. Gotham was used for the sub-title, “Living Learning Communities” , as well as the name of each community.
COLOR
The creative brief asked to use the same color scheme that was used for the Living Learning Communities Summit. The colors consisted of a navy blue, teal, and turquoise. In our initial meeting with Aaron I suggested the color scheme be the same orange as the University of Texas. It not only falls in line with the branding standards of the university but according to research from color theory psychology, the warmth of the orange symbolize the mood of friendly, cheerful, and confidence.
CLIENT FEEDBACK AND FINAL UPDATES
After sending the first round of logos, Aaron and his colleges chose to move forward with the shield design and asked to add a graphic element that could be used to further distinguish the different communities. I was also asked to add the name of each community inside the shield, above LLC. I decided to add the graphic element that represents the particular community above the logo to keep it balanced. The icons used for the communities are: Globe for Global Living, people holding hands for Healthy Lifestyles, gear for Women in Engineering, recycle arrows for Sustainable Living, and an atom for Women of Natural Sciences. All of the graphic icons are round in nature so I cropped the icons to be semi-circular to be placed on top of the shield.
After creating the Living Learning Community Logo, I had the great opportunity to be chosen as the designer to work with Aaron Voyles again to create the department's first yearly Learning and Impact Report.
