The University of California has relaunched its brand with with a huge change to it’s logo. Watch this launch video to see the quick version.  RSS readers click here for the link.

Click here for Logo Design Love’s take on it.

Although they’ve developed a complete brand style guide, if I needed to develop a licensed product using the brand execution guide, I’d find a lot of choices.  They’ve created a huge brand promise to live up to:

The positioning

Boldly Californian.

UC embodies the ambition of California and ignites the potential of its people.

And I think they have a lot of attributes that may be difficult to contain…

Brand attributes

Visionary.
Experimental.
Optimistic.
Awe-Inspiring.
Essential.
Audacious.
Pioneering.
Proven.

Everything we say and do should embody these traits.

Although it is “different”, I do admire how they launched it. I like how they packaged their templates on their branding page, and provided easy access to their enormous photo library (all copyrighted of course!) I did notice that they didn’t completely throw away their old seal logo in favor of the new C logo. One of their guidelines “Hire the best photography you can afford” is a mantra that many organizations should aspire to but it’s not a phrase that is usually contained in a style guideline.

What are your thoughts about University of California’s branding/rebrand program?