HKU School of Computing & Data Science — Education, TECHNOLOGY
Empowering changemakers
With over a century of history, The University of Hong Kong is the region’s longest-established higher education institute.
HKU approached us to create the brand identity for a new school, combining the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.
Through our brand strategy workshop, we worked closely with the department’s professors and stakeholders to uncover core values of leadership, interdisciplinary innovation and curiosity.
The core values were evolved into a unique personality, positioning and purpose for the school, unified in the mission of ‘Empowering Changemakers’.
We built the brand through our iterative, collaborative process, presenting brand concepts and then refining and refining to a critical logomark and visual identity system.
The logo highlights the coming together of the two departments, the ‘C’ of ‘Computing’ and ‘D’ of ‘Data Science’. The overall ‘S’ form signifies the ‘School’.
We took inspiration from the earliest computers, and the essence of the earliest codification.
To complement the new logomark, we developed the CDS iris, a graphical system used to distinguish the five core fields of study and throughout the brand communications.
The iris is a central form of the new identity. We were initially inspired by the form of a ‘technological eye’, an iris or lens that connects the past and the future. The iris is constructed from the Morse code translation of the five core fields of study under CDS.
— CDS Iris
— Morse code
We created two versions of the iris for different uses in the brand touchpoints.
— Initials
— Fields of study
We chose Work Sans for the wordmark and primary typefaces for the CDS brand identity. Work Sans is a grotesque style, with a functional, no-nonsense, factual expression.
The colour palette was built from the five core fields of study, enabling flexibility in the visual identity, and allowing for variation and depth in the brands’ presentation.
Thank you to Jessica, Coni, Naussica, Frankie, Erica, Eunice, and everyone on the HKU CDS team. Thank you to the professors for through the brand strategy process.
Thank you to Jordan Scott for bringing the logo to life with motion.
