Case Study
Reinterpreting a brand architectureUSC School of Architecture
Brand Redesign · Publication Design · Book Design · Marketing Collateral Design
Innovation meets restraint
The USC School of Architecture had used a brand design system for four years. Across the school's myriad publications, evolving the system without losing its equities was key to success.
Recognized the world over for its faculty, curriculum, and high-calibre student output, the USC School of Architecture has an existing brand design system. Consisting of bold shapes, patterns, and typography, the system also lives within the USC parent brand.
The existing brand design system prescribed a series of shapes and typography but had gone flat after four years of use.
Tasked with re-energizing the brand system, we retained the shapes and patterns but blew them up into supergraphics. Bold typography that bleeds over images pairs with restrained copy blocks in strict, academic grids.
Taking a fresh look at the brand system yeilded an outcome that gave the school's publications an appropriately innovative presence paired with the clean restraint of Brand USC.
INDEX publication
A volume that documents the leading-edge student work, exceptional core faculty, and topical research of the Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program at USC. The book combines the futurism of project renderings with straightforward typography and a strict grid.
William Krisel monograph
A book honoring William Krisel, the architect who pioneered mid-century modern architecture in Southern California with distinctive butterfly rooflines, breeze-block screens, and a systematic approach to commercial and residential architecture.
The blind-embossed cover pattern takes from Krisel's signature breeze-block walls.
Departmental program posters
Continuing the brand system application to a poster series announcing various student programs.
Graduate program collateral
A series of simple postcards and roll-fold brochures, brought to life with imagery and architectural typography expressing each of the school's Masters programs.
