University of Winchester Re-brand

Together with Bold Creative, I am very proud to have designed the new branding for the University of Winchester. The ancient City of Winchester has a long and rich history, with its most famous period being when it was the ancient capital of Wessex and the seat of King Alfred the Great. In fact the University’s original name was King Alfred’s College, and its original coat of arms incorporated elements of King Alfred’s, such as the chequer and lion. We decided to take the University’s brand back to its historical roots, by reintroducing the shield and giving it a modern look. We kept a foot in both the future and the past by incorporating such elements as the hatching method of heraldist Petra Sancta, where the diagonal lines represent the colour purple, which is the University’s primary hue. The diagonal lines and chequer were then abstracted, repeated and fused with the University’s motto of ‘Wisdom Ond Lar’ (wisdom and knowledge) to provide the brand with a toolbox of graphical elements, which could be utilised for a plethora of different situations. All these elements successfully came together within the brand to combine the University’s long history with its values of confidence, creativity and forward thinking.