Taking on the Traditional
In 2018, the University of South Florida had recently become a Preeminent Research University, a new chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa, and began to unify its three campuses in Tampa Bay. However, their brand didn’t represent this a university of this new caliber. USF asked us to redefine their academic brand and craft a launch campaign that would show the nation that they’d arrived. Over several months we met with hundreds of leaders, faculty members, students and alumni across the three campuses to create a bold brand that would stand out against its competition.
ART DIRECTION
DESIGN
The new brand consisted of a new, chiseled bull mark, a high-contrast green palette, a bold display font that mimicked the style of the mark, and a “glow” texture that brought a sense of rebellious confidence.
The Campaign
To launch the new brand and raise awareness about the newly Preeminent university, we created a future-focused integrated campaign that highlighted the ways that USF was redefining research, uninhibited by the red tape found at older institutions.
To position USF differently, we purchased ad space in unexpected places like WIRED and Mashable as well as industry publications like The Chronicle of Higher Education and INSIDE Higher Ed.
VIEW CAMPAIGN LANDING PAGE
The campaign resulted in 34 million impressions (nearly 50% over our goal) and doubled the national click-through rate.
The Bull in
the Room
Unfortunately, though highly regarded by the design community, negative feedback on social media and in the local press, drove the University to revert back the Bull U mark. It’s something that no team ever wants to experience but it taught us valuable lessons about launching an identity and I am still proud of the work.
