Designing the new identity for the GSA Students’ Association
The heart of student life at The Glasgow School of Art
The Association had a few problems. Firstly, they had no sense of identity - nobody in the community knew exactly what they did or how they could engage with the organisation.
By being referred to as GSASA, they were being lost in a sea of corporate sounding acronyms that mean nothing to students.
Visual Audit of the previous identity.
The Glasgow School of Art is a prestigious school, and students are proud to attend. But the visual language of the school is rightly more institutional and corporate. The Students’ Association had to be the inverse of this.
So the strategy became:
What is the exact opposite of the GSA logo? That is the identity for the GSA Students’ Association. We’re not the school, we’re the community that powers it.
Visual Audit of the GSA Identity.
Our Values
Hopeful
Honest
Brave
Kind
Radical
Intersectional
Empowering
Illustrations that bring the brand to life
There had to be a broader visual language for the brand across print, digital, social media, marketing and more. Brand illustrations make GSA Students’ Association versatile and instantly recognisable.
Illustrator Sadie Falconer is a GSA Student, and having students engaged in the rebrand gave them ownership over what is their organisation.
Launch Video
Working with Michael was as exciting as it was insightful. His passion for design and marketing was on show from our very first meeting, and that carried on throughout a long project rebranding the GSA Students’ Association.
He was the key driver in modernising our brand while retaining our distinctness as a political arts community. We are delighted with what he provided us with, as it’s helped us in the present with the assets we now have, but will also make future marketing more straightforward.
We hope to work with him again soon.
Ewan Summers, Communications and Digital Engagement Coordinator
