Grade creates Kingston’s Alumni Association logo

Grade Design has created an identity for Kingston University’s fledgling Alumni Association, which is being launched to encourage former students to get in touch with the university and each other.

The logo, which will be unveiled this week, is designed to communicate the concepts of ‘connecting and networking’.

It incorporates a stylised bridge icon to reflect these principles as well as represent one of the bridges on the Thames in Kingston, a structure ex-students will remember from their university days, says Grade Design creative director Peter Dawson.

‘The bridge adds an element of heritage to spark off interest as well as illustrating the concept of connecting people,’ adds Dawson, a former Kingston student himself.

The university previously had different alumni association logos for each of its diverse departments, including music, design, business and law. ‘Kingston wanted to introduce a consistent look and feel with a single identity as well as centralise the association,’ Dawson says.

The identity also helps the university ‘raise its game’ and appear more professional to its former students, he adds.

Grade Design was briefed to create a two-colour marque incorporating dark blue alongside Kingston’s existing cyan colourway. The brief also included retaining the university’s corporate identity.

The marque will be applied to stationery, literature and newsletters, which will be sent to over 35 000 graduates. A website to enable former students to get in touch with each other is being designed in-house at Kingston and will go live in about a month. Grade Design has been asked to consult on the website, which will also incorporate the logo.

The group won the work on the strength of previous projects with Kingston, as well as Dawson’s teaching connections with the university.

Grade Design was approached and presented concepts that were used for its final work.