The Levin College of Urban Affairs at CSU has a wide set of programs and a diverse constituency, but all share one goal: changing the world for good.
We were asked to bring order to chaos. The tension between the existing guidelines for Cleveland State University and an academic desire for independence and autonomy created a very inconsistent body of work. First, we created a series of logos for the College that all looked like they were part of the same system.
One theme that kept coming up in our research: everyone appreciates that at Levin, walls don’t exist. The areas of expertise are constantly blending and overlapping. We took that concept and created gradients from CSU's official color palette. Using these, we were able to develop a series of textures that felt unique to each department, but also formed an identifiable system for the College within the larger sphere of the University.
The new standards were then expanded into the College's collateral, including program brochures, web graphics for the site, weekly and quarterly newsletters, stationery, and everything you could think of that a college would need.
The tagline "at Levin" was developed to illustrate where change begins and big things happen.