Building a luxury inspired brand identity for a specialised Master Programme.
The environment of educational institutions is rapidly changing with the web becoming the new classroom, universities competing internationally and the interest for Postgraduate- or Executive Programs increasing. Today in Geneva itself, there are several competing Luxury Management programs.
In 2015, the Master in Luxury Management at the Geneva School of Business Administration (HEG) reached out to Creative Supply to help them redefine the positioning of the program. The brief of its Program Director, Mark Schumacher, was simple: To develop an identity that would reflect the quality of the program and differentiate it from its competitors.
Crafting a brand promise
In a first step, we scanned the environment to understand how the competition presented itself to the market. It was surprising to notice how similar the visual language of each of them was. Most used expressions like “tailor-made” as well as the colour red and classic luxury imagery.
Building on the collected insights, we held a workshop with the management to identify the unique traits of this program. The expertise of the faculty, the immersive learning experience and the academic rigour at HEG were soon identified as key differentiating elements for the brand. We translated these elements into a simple yet powerful brand promise articulated as: “Passing down the mastery of luxury”.
A luxury inspired design
To increase its appeal among potential students, we were convinced that the visual universe of the program should be inspired by luxury codes rather than academic ones. The new logo was designed to evoke the universe of a luxury perfume label, mixing elegant black and white photography with luxury textures and patterns. A colour palette with a dominance of purple allowed the logo to stand out in a sophisticated manner, transpiring attributes of singularity, refinement and modernity.
The new visual identity of the Master’s Program was well-received by all its stakeholders. After having been invited to sit on the advisory board of the school and through on-going teaching commitments, Creative Supply continue to have an active role within the Master in Luxury Management.
“We called upon Creative Supply when setting out to redesign our logo because we needed a different look since our needs where closer to the luxury and service industry than the educational sector.”
, Head of the Program