Research and design blog proposal

Research

The University of Hull was founded in 1927 after the generous gifts of 250,000 pounds and the gift of 18 acres of land from philanthropist and industrialist Thomas Ferens. The university opened to 16 staff and 39 students. Ferens is a large part of the uni’s history, being celebrated in multiple ways, like the dove in the uni’s logo being from his family crest, the uni’s motto Lampada Ferens ( meaning ” carrying the light“), and most notably having a building on the campus named after him.

The University of Hull has had a long history in teaching and inspiring students. Notable alumni from the uni reach into all subjects. Lucy Beaumont, a BAFTA-nominated comedian and writer, attended the university with a BA (Hons) in drama in 2004 before going on to become successful in TV. Guido Imbens is a Nobel Prize-winning economist who spent a year at Hull inspiring his PhD in Economics. Matt Haig is a BA (Hons) English and History graduate in 1996 , from which he would become a bestselling author with the Midnight Library selling 10 million copies worldwide.

Hull Uni campus started as just two buildings, those buildings being the Cohen building, which originally was the uni’s science building, and the Venn building, which acted as the arts building. The two buildings were made in a Neo-Georgian style designed by W.A. Forsyth and partners. The two buildings have since gone on to be categorised as a group of architectural significance by Historic England and given a Grade 2 listed status.

Out of my research, I have come to the conclusion that I want to explore the architecture of the uni and the original plans to inspire my work and the project that I am going to create as a response to the centenary of the University of Hull. I want to follow the architecture as it gives a more interesting way to develop shapes like the Path layout in the plans for the original design of the uni I found when we went to the old history center in Hull city center.

University of Reading centenary

In 2026 the university of reading created these Designs to celebrate their centenary, The designer was the Unis own Alumni Hannah Milway who is also the University’s head of creative print services. The design she made was voted by the University campus wide vote it was the first project she ran as the Head of creative print service, the team put in six designs with three being selected two of which she told connected Alumni magazine were hers and upon the final three she voted for the design of hers that wasn’t selected. The design is made to capture elements of the university’s heritage architecture and Values this is done within the designs geometric shapes and the Uni emblem. The design mainly features the number 100 to celebrate the centenary for the Unis 100 years since they got the royal charter thew design is features a typographical style with a more creative pattern and shape work inside the numbers. The design also features a scallop shell which comes from the Emblem of the Uni the shells comes from the historical arms of Reading Abbey the shell is a reminder to people that the the unis original extension college was part of the abbey grounds, the shell in their centenary design makes sure their heritage is represented in the design. The design i think will inform my response to the Uni of Hulls centenary will be with the Typographical elements I want to focus on the 100 idea similar to the Uni of readings design motif I want to separate mine from theirs by having the pattern be a compliment to posters celebrating for the centenary.

Concepts

For my first concept for my response, I wanted to look into having a logo that I can have for the centenary. I wanted something sharp, easy to read, and compact. I chose a font called Legend M54. I chose this as I thought it achieved the idea I wanted. The uni has followed a more formal branding until it decided to have its rebrand a few years ago. The designer who rebranded the uni said this in their guidelines: “The University of Hull needed to reposition themselves in the crowded and competitive UK University market. They had lost a feeling of prestige – something we endeavoured to revive while simultaneously making them feel like a cutting-edge, progressive, and contemporary institution.” I wanted to take a similar idea, having a typeface that stood out from other universities.

Pattern

I wanted to have a similar type of pattern to my research from the University of Reading with the typographical 100 pattern. I decided I wanted the architecture of the university to inspire this. When looking at images of the university, I came across the window above the entrance to the Venn building.

I took this shape from the building and used it to create the main pattern for my poster campaign celebrating the centenary. I used this shape for multiple reasons, the main one being it gave me a lot of freedom in my design process as it works in a singular shape and as a collective, allowing for versatility. I also liked the shape as it resembles a sea life ring, which links to Hull City’s history as a maritime town.

Campaign identity and microsite

For my overall campaign and microsite themes, I wanted to stick to the branding guidelines the university rebrand set and create my own ideas following those ideas for the theme. I want it to be celebratory for the centenary. I started with these concepts that celebrate the 100th year of the Uni with subtle themes of heritage, like the life ring in the pattern. I want the microsite to explore more of this heritage in a deeper way.

Taken from the University of Hull : Paul Allworthy website

I chose to work in the University guidelines roughly as I thought it would make the centenary concepts I develop fit better and feel more linked to the actual university and the way they design their own ads and posters. I want these guidelines to influence my first set of posters as they are meant to inform people of the centenary and then explore other ideas and compositions linking to a themed design based around the uni’s history. My plan for developing my concepts further and creating an identity is to have a series of informational posts blocks of information about the uni and its history with a small design for each block.

Want to include these ideas into the microsite design as I can have them as designs to start with that I can then develop into features in the site, having like the animation for the blocks be related to the design or to have the buttons themed into the block and the information. I want this idea to go onto the microsite as well as having celebratory posters like the concepts I have made.

I created these concepts to celebrate the centenary project of the University of Hull using the shapes and logo I created to start the project. I wanted something that was subtle and informative, telling people that the centenary celebration is coming up. I chose the University colours and some compositions from the brand guidelines as I thought it would nicely celebrate and point out some of the University’s recent history. Having the current logo and style, I used photos I took on my camera for these posters showing the campus how it is currently.

Proposal plan

My proposal for further developing how I will undertake further research and creating an identity that will engage with the centenary celebrations is to develop a gallery of sorts of that can explore the history of the university in more detail. Things I want to develop in my work are designs surrounding more of the history. This means that I want to develop work that is based around the history it talks about. For example, I want to have a section based on the maritime history of Hull and have designs following their own colour palette and style. For example, I want a section on the maritime history of Hull with its own designs and style with designs inspired by things like the life ring pattern I have already created but instead of a smaller link, a more obvious and stylized design. With further research, I want to have more detail about how the uni has had an effect on the surrounding area and in the world as a whole. I want to create these designs onto things like a similar way to reading University having clothing with their centenary design motif. I would like to create ideas like this with the centenary in mind when I create the visuals. I think the idea of having the mocks of the centenary motif will create engagement with the audience as it will give a fun idea of clothing for people to wear, making the centenary celebration a fun way for people to interact with the actual celebration.  Another thing I would like to create is social media designs for posts that will give me freedom to explore through an identity design through the format of social media having different restrictions like having the size of a phone screen or a 5-second video with an animation.