Mark Visbeek Blog

The University of Twente, where I am currently finishing my MSc.-course Industrial Design Engineering, recently introduced a new visual identity that was created in collaboration with Studio Dumbar. Since, this identity redesign has been the subject of heavy debate and disapproval among both students and employees.

The main points of discussion are:

• The excessive and unclear costs of the conversion to the new identity
• The fact that the university’s own design department was ignored and put aside in favor of an external studio
• The resulting design’s short life expectancy, as it is based on existing and fragile graphical hypes and trends

Communication- and marketing-weblog Spotlight Effect asked me to write an article about the problems surrounding the new identity of the university, and explain in detail the different sides to the different parts of the story.

Said article just got published, and you can read it here:
“3 miljoen euro om een punt te maken: De nieuwe huisstijl van Universiteit Twente”

I invite everyone to join in on the discussion. Even if you don’t speak Dutch, it is nevertheless interesting to study the strange, funny-sounding words that go along with the images that speak for themselves.