Around 18 months ago, CUBED rebranded the University of Ballarat. It was a big job and it got big results, not only with a 13% increase in new enrolments but also being recognised with an AMI award. Which was nice.

Not wanting to rest on our laurels, our next challenge was to bring the UB Tec brand under the University of Ballarat umbrella while retaining its individuality.

UB Tec offers hands-on, vocational training and, as it already had its own logo, strapline and existing library of images, we had to get extra creative to find a way of injecting energy and excitement into the existing brand.

The first step was to find a way of introducing the new University of Ballarat colour spectrum.

The second was to make the campaign attractive to our target audience of 15–19 year olds.

Taking the vertical colour bars from the main UB branding, we picked out the more vibrant hero colours, separated them and staggered their heights. This gave a feeling of movement and it began to resemble volume bars pulsating on a stereo. Something that gave UB Tec an appropriately energetic and youthful feel. By adding the images of technical career professionals such as hairdressers, mechanics and nurses, we gave the work a life of its own.

Finally the logo was refreshed, and the strapline tweaked.

The look got the thumbs up from not only from UB Tec, but from the students as well. And it’s now been rolled out across the campus and the state as stationary, brochures, press and TVCs.

Now, that’s getting hands-on.

Tags: rebrand, rebranding, ub tec, university of ballarat