Harvard Management Corporation
Brand Identity Evolution
Challenge
Harvard Management Corporation (HMC) manages Harvard’s endowment and wanted to evolve its existing logo to communicate a substantial shift in the management and company culture. The challenge was to make a meaningful evolution that expressed modernization while staying within the university’s stringent guidelines around its legacy branding (specifically, the Harvard crest).
Brand Identity Evolution ―
Approach
After substantive discussions with HMC, we understood their goals and were clear on the parameters. We started by proposing various options to test the scale of the possible changes. We quickly learned that we could only make minimal alterations to the crest. So we focused on the typeface and layout. Sans serif fonts often provide a much sleeker and more modern look, so we moved in that direction. Once we chose a typeface, we created a few options that best aligned it with the marque and added a slim vertical line to create a tight sense of structure. Ultimately, we cleaned up the crest slightly to make it more readable.
Approach ―
Result
By convincing HMC to move from their original serif typeface, we made subtle yet substantive changes focused on font, layout, and size. We successfully modernized the logo while keeping the integrity of the brand intact. In addition, we’ve helped HMC roll out a full suite of corporate identity assets to align with the refreshed logo, including business cards, document templates, PowerPoint decks, and email signatures.
Result ―
