Warner College of Natural Resources
It’s in Our Nature
For all eight colleges at Colorado State University, we developed visual branding toolkits. My collaborative relationship with Warner College of Natural Resources led to over four years of partnership and creativity. Below is an example of how the visual brand language built a common visual thread in the expression of their brand.
Role: Design Direction, Illustration, Strategy, and Design
©2016-2020 Colorado State University
Visual Brand Language designed in collaboration with Ari Curtis
Birth of the #Handana
Each college had legacy illustrations used as its logo. We had the opportunity to transform it into the form a graphic representation of the college. Representing the “W” and “C” for Warner College, this mark soon took a life of its own with the students. Each finger represented the different units within the college. One student even got it tattooed. Eventually, the #handana was born.
After a year or so, Warner College was fast approaching an opportunity for a new addition to the building. This opened a unique window of time to paint the story of the college throughout.
There was already an inset planned outside the new additions lecture hall. It was up to us to design what that could become. We landed on using locally sourced beetle kill pine. A scene with activities related to the research and efforts of the college was burned into the mural of wood.
We created recreational murals, but also interactions with local habitats and animals next to their appropriate majors on various floors of the college. This simplified style paired well with the Herman Miller furniture used throughout the building.
The foothills were represented in this glass treatment. Adding a layer of privacy for students, but also discovery in the design.
The Student Success Center became a fixture where students would lounge. Prospective students could come and learn more about majors and disciplines as well. This played a large role in student recruitment.
An opportunity arose for a staircase to become LEED certified. We designated each floor its own primary color. Each color represented a different elevation. As you go up the stairs, you go from the plains to the foothills, to sub-alpine and eventually alpine zones. This encouraged students and visitors to explore and get exercise in the process.
As a part of the college’s recruitment effort on its website, we created a short video to introduce interested students to the Warner College of Natural Resources.
