Under a new director, Humber Polytechnic's in-house creative agency, NEXT, was looking to rebrand to accompany their new name. First year Advertising and Graphic Design students were tasked with designing a logo and creating a fun, energetic, and professional brand identity that reflected the pillars of NEXT: collaboration, education, and innovation.
Our team won the year-wide competition, and this brand identity forms the foundation for NEXT Student Agency's current branding.
This initial concept was born from playing with paperclips while trying to come up with an idea.
We called it "The Creative Notebook" because as students, we log, explore, and refine our creative process and ideas in our notebooks.
The dual accent colours—evoking pens— illustrate collaboration.
The handwritten font, the scribbles, and the physical ephemera communicate that there are genuine people behind the brand.
After presenting our initial concept, the client asked for it to be bolder and more energetic.
We emphasized the colour contrast by inverting the proportions of white and black. As well, we changed the colour palette to be broadline fluorescent.
To make the branding feel more fun and energetic, we introduced a hand lettering treatment to the photography.
This iteration went on to be chosen for NEXT's official branding.
This is NEXT's branding today.
While many of the original design elements remain, the logo underwent a massive change for readability and scalability purposes.
This was an incredible learning experience, and I am so honored to one of NEXT's current graphic designers!