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  • The University
  • 03/09/2018

New house style releases user from old straitjacket

TU/e's old house style offered the user much less freedom than the new one does. Executive Board member Jo van Ham says this sometimes prompted people not to use the logo or to 'tinker around’ and come up with something of their own. Not that the restyle is dramatic, and the process of replacement will be very gradual. “No massive clear out then in which the old version is instantly discontinued, instead old and new will run alongside each other for one or two years,” expects Van Ham.

by
photo Bart van Overbeeke

Right and left the new house style is already in evidence on the campus, for example on the banners along the Limbo path announcing MomenTUm. A restyled version of the old TU/e logo in a familiar red color. “So that we can reuse them in the coming years these banners don't carry a year,” says Hanneke Koppers, who as director of the Communication Expertise Center had the house style revitalization under her wing. “Things like that save money, which is why even after Monday September 3rd, when the new house style is officially launched, items in the old house style can still be used. After all, it would simply be destroying capital if we threw everything away.”

 

The new logo is already being used on the banners announcing MomenTUm. Photo | Han Konings
User freedom

Vice President Jo van Ham says the introduction of the new house style is perfectly in tune with the announcement of the university's new vision for 2030. “We have always been very happy with our 12-year-old logo and the matching house style, but their use was subject to a fair few restrictions. The house style was sometimes felt to be a straitjacket. And if people have trouble using it, they are free to decide not to use it at all. That has happened on occasion and has meant some of TU/e's branding opportunities have been lost. The new house style gives the user a great deal of freedom. Consequently, we expect that the logo will always be included, even in communications by our institutes, which are now able to add their own name quite simply.”

According to Koppers, users often had trouble with the fact that as well as the logo, the institution's name also had to be included in both Dutch and English. “That made it tricky to use and led to some clumsy and incorrect results. Now there is the option of using only the powerful logo, which we think is perfectly able to stand alone, in a choice of colors, or of adding the English name: Eindhoven University of Technology. We feel self-confident enough to be seen as a world player.”

Red

Koppers and Van Ham share the view that the color red, which will be used on all the university's corporate communications, is associated with the city of Eindhoven and the province of Brabant and projects a strong image. Similarly, the logo on the roof of Vertigo will feature this color prominently in future.

The first occasion on which the new house style will appear is the presentation of Strategy 2030 at the Academic Year Opening held on Monday September 3rd, “and of course it will soon be visible everywhere in the Atlas building when it is refurbished,” explains Koppers. Van Ham says the introduction is not being hurried. “We aren't generating any haste. It will be a process of gradual replacement and we expect the old and new house styles to exist alongside each other for a year or two.”

Online you'll find a house style guide that includes recommendations and instructions for using both the house style and the logo.

 

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