Case Study: Brand Refresh, UC Berkeley TDPS
In 2015, the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at the University of California, Berkeley, was in a situation clients often face: they had a logo, but no visual vocabulary. I was hired to build a visual system inspired by UC Berkeley’s brand.
GOAL: Capture the experimental energy of a department whose performances feature their students.
GRAPHIC ELEMENTS: The foundation of the TDPS look is wedge-shaped, tone-on-tone gradients evocative of spotlights — a modification of “prisms” from the University’s toolkit.
COLOR: I cherry-picked vibrant hues from the University’s palette to function as a TDPS-specific palette.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Performance shots tend to be very dark; I proposed we cut human figures out from their somber backdrops whenever possible. University-provided light leaks lend vibrancy.
TYPOGRAPHY: UC Berkeley’s superfamily, Freight, is set with a twist: using GREP styles, its standard alphabet becomes unicase, lending headers a unique flair.