Brand Awareness Campaign for Staff and Students

BY: .

UKZN’s Corporate Relations Division (CRD) hosted a virtual awareness campaign to educate staff and students on the Institution’s corporate identity and how it can be used effectively.

In her welcome address, the custodian of UKZN’s communications and marketing strategy, Executive Director: CRD, Ms Normah Zondo, highlighted the importance of communicating a strong and coherent corporate identity.

‘To ensure consistency in using the UKZN brand, we have developed the University Corporate Identity Manual incorporating basic usage guidelines. It is vital that all our stakeholders understand and use these guidelines to ensure that our corporate image and identity is consistent, clear, and effective,’ she said. 

Taking participants through some of the important guidelines in the manual, Principal Graphic Designer, Mr Lungelo Ngcobo, highlighted the preferred logo as being a full-colour landscape with deviations being a white logo against a dark background, with a black logo only to be used when colour reproduction is not possible. He also noted that the portrait version of the logo requires approval. 

Listing some of the don’ts of logo usage, he said, ‘don’t distort the logo by squashing or stretching it; don’t add effects or filters, change the colour of any of the elements, place the logo over imagery or busy backgrounds of any kind, tilt or turn it in various directions, separate the logotype from the symbol in any manner, change the font of the descriptor or the letterhead, use a low resolution for print or a pixelated logo for digital platforms, or place the logo on a background that uses the same colour(s) as the logo.’

Ngcobo reviewed global brands such as Nike and Harvard University and their guidelines for logo usage and noted that UKZN follows international branding standards. 

Focusing on fonts, he said that Century Gothic Bold is reserved for taglines, Myriad Pro is the preferred font for institutional and template adverts, and Arial is a general font for PowerPoint presentations.

Ngcobo added that a symbol for the UKZN acronym would be introduced this year to fit into tight spaces such as QR codes, social media, etc., and reported on progress made in designing College-themed invitations. 

He said that in partner logo invitations, the UKZN logo should be on the left, with the co-sponsor on the right, separated by a 30% black line separator. ‘If the University is not the main partner, the UKZN logo can be placed on the right, with the main sponsor on the left.’

Regarding corporate clothing, Ngcobo also highlighted that the full-colour logo should only be used on white golfs or t-shirts, while coloured ones use a single-coloured logo. 

During the question and answer session, the Manager for Student Health and Sport, Mr Mark Bashe, encouraged sporting clubs and societies to educate themselves on using the logo and branding when creating apparel that represents the University.

For queries or comments, contact the Corporate Relations team at Corporaterelations@ukzn.ac.za

To view the Corporate Identity Brand Awareness Campaign webinar, click here.

Words: Hlengiwe Khwela

Image: Supplied