Department of Biochemistry, Oxford
Project type
Having redesigned several college websites in Oxford I was approached to undertake an entire rebranding of the Department of Biochemistry. I consulted widely to develop an idea of how people conceived of their subject and department and what sort of images would best represented them. I settled on a pair of sinuous, interweaving lines that suggested biological detail to some (protein chains), computer modelling to others and which generally conveyed a sense of flux and rhythm appropriate to a dynamic science department. I balanced this with the capitalised text preferred by the University and complicated the design with a dark red to offset the Oxford blue. The logo is used paper, business cards, mugs, pens, banners and posters.
I also designed the departmental website, which was then coded by the in-house IT team. Here I worked within the confines of the University's own branding guidelines to produce a department site unique within Oxford. The site has been praised by the University's Head of Publications and Web: "Having had the pleasure of trawling most of the University departmental websites I wanted to say that I think the Biochemistry site is stand-out in its clarity and organisation" (August 2010).