UNIE - Shaping The Future Of Madrid’s Higher Education

We developed a brand strategy and visual identity for UNIE, a multi-specialist Madrid-based university blossoming in Spain’s dynamic economic capital, by continuously adapting its syllabus to prepare professionals for the 21st century and its evolving professional needs. To fully understand the university’s context, goals, and challenges, we immersed ourselves in a thorough category benchmarking exercise and brand audit. After carefully connecting the dots, we structured a complete brand strategy to position UNIE as an open, business-oriented university that provides relevant and highly demanded skills and knowledge to help students find their place in their chosen discipline. We defined the strategic foundations of a cosmopolitan, student-focused university that integrates a wide range of knowledge streams while remaining connected to the business network of Spain’s capital. Then, we developed a complete visual identity that embodies the institution’s core values and goals through a targeted colour palette, and a colouristic art direction focused on the student. Thus, we shaped a sober black-and-white colour scheme that allowed multiple adjustments and contrasts to spotlight knowledge and students and to have an owner identity for each discipline. The graphic brand is composed of an iconic asterisk that accompanies the naming within the logotype, representing UNIE’s spirit of becoming the prime meeting point for all disciplines, businesses, and students in Madrid, while also echoing Madrid’s iconic starred flag. The symbol becomes an adaptive graphic tool that generates a visual system that becomes the basis of the brand’s communication and identity. A graphic tool that can be adapted through patterns, scaling, and repetition to transmit UNIE’s dynamic and contemporary perspective on higher education.