The academic field in Israel consists mainly of public universities and private colleges. Among them, IDC was an academic unicorn: it has earned plenty of credit in research, unique programs of global standards and PHDs. But then again: it was officially a college. During its 27 years of activity, IDC worked its way toward official recognition as a university, and in August 2021 it finally happened: Reichman University was officially born as a brand, encompassing years of prolific legacy and achievements abound. We joined forces to transcend IDC into Reichman, and help it position itself as the first private university in Israel.
After a mutual thorough process with the Reichman teams, we’ve concluded that the current brand values should stick around for its next step. We believe that as long as the values are alive, well and valid, the brand essence remains and is doing the brand a good service. In this case, IDC was academically upgraded thanks to its activity and values, and therefor they serve as a quality stamp. The biggest challenge was keeping the most talked about value, interdisciplinarity. In its previous name, Reichman University positioned itself at the top of the interdisciplinary scale. We chose to firmly connect Reichman University and its new identity with the existing brand and values, using the logo. The new logo carries the university’s name, Reichman, alongside the famous stars that appeared in previous logo.
The visual language we’ve developed and designed for Reichman University allows for brand continuity and keeps its assets, while redefining it and positioning it in a different professional field, apart from other universities. The seven stars in the logo refer to Benjamin Herzl’s suggestion for a new Jewish state flag, and represent Zionism, leadership and innovation as core values. The new color palette consists of a main color, Reichman Blue, which always appears with white and represents a connection to Zionism and Israel. Alongside it, a set of secondary colors, each represent an academic section of Reichman University. We’ve selected Kav 16 as the brand font for both Hebrew and English, as it conveys great legacy and playful dynamic movement. The photography expresses the core value “students are at the center” and shows slices of campus life in bright colors. Combining both a strong established brand and a fresh, thorough and rich design, Reichman University is well equipped to star as the first and only private university in Israel.