We were fortunate to be invited by ADDU last July 2019 to hold a two-day branding workshop in their campus. The prospect was exciting, but we wondered: How does one condense a two-month branding engagement to a two-day workshop? How might we ignite an inspired design process in a limited amount of time?
Our task was to facilitate the creation of ADDU’s brand identity together with their different stakeholders — going through the process of core value identification to the conceptualization of the elements of their identity.
The team we worked with mentioned that while Davaoenos know Ateneo for the education it offers, they also perceive it to be an exclusive school only for the rich. However, members of the team contested this idea, and shared how the university is in fact very welcoming to people from different social and ethnic backgrounds. For instance, 1 out of 5 students in ADDU are scholars.
Along with this perception issue, the team also highlighted the lack of cohesion in present communication efforts, both visually and verbally. The team longed to communicate their efforts in a cohesive manner: a brand which could house all these key messages.
Strategy comes before execution in our branding process. We ran exercises on value visualization and image generation. We were pleasantly surprised by the pace the team picked this practice up. At the end of our workshop, they were able to outline concrete visual cues for the Ateneo De Davao brand identity.
To tie everything together, we gave a quick lecture on brand guidelines, addressing the need for cohesion and systematization. We concluded the engagement by pinning down the brand direction with the team. We defined all the values, messages, and visual cues they identified and could use in implementing the rebrand.
The most rewarding thing for us was to see that our brand design process can also be applied outside of the And A Half office, without using our usual tools.
It was inspiring to witness the seeds of a strong brand identified, articulated, and presented by the people who are going to live it. We weren’t coming up with messages, sketching ideas for logos or tinkering with grids ourselves. Instead, we led a bright group of people on that path. And maybe that’s where designing an inspired brand should start and go back to—the people who make up and live out the brand.
Addi Panadero, Facilitator and Designer
