Overview
Southern Methodist University needed to modernize its brand while preserving the recognition and heritage that mattered to its community. The challenge extended beyond visual identity: the university needed a consistent, scalable digital expression of its brand that could be adopted across schools, departments, and digital touchpoints.
I contributed to a research-driven brand initiative, gathering perspectives from students, faculty, staff, and administrators to understand how the institution was perceived and how it wanted to evolve.
The Challenge
The challenge was to translate a complex set of stakeholder perspectives into a cohesive brand system that could scale across the university's digital presence.
Key challenges:
- Balance institutional heritage with a more contemporary identity.
- Establish consistent, reusable visual and content guidelines.
- Support accessibility across digital experiences.
- Differentiate SMU while addressing the needs of a broad campus community.
Research & discovery
I helped ground the brand direction in research, combining community feedback and competitive analysis to identify opportunities for differentiation and consistency.
- Community research: Surveyed over 150 campus community members and interviewed more than 25 people to understand brand perception.
- Competitive analysis: Evaluated more than 20 universities to identify positioning and visual identity patterns.
- Stakeholder workshops: Collaborated with marketing leadership to align on the university's brand direction and guiding principles.
The solution
The result was a centralized digital brand resource that established consistent guidance for typography, color, imagery, and language across the university community.
The system translated SMU's Bold, Curious, and Creative brand pillars into practical guidelines that could be adopted across touchpoints. Accessibility was a core requirement, with the digital work designed to meet the specified WCAG AAA standards.
Impact & takeaways
The initiative established a more consistent and accessible digital brand experience while delivering measurable gains in website usage and engagement.
- +56% website usage
- 6.2x engagement growth
- WCAG AAA accessibility target
The project reinforced the value of grounding design direction in research, aligning stakeholders around shared principles, and translating strategy into a scalable system that teams can apply consistently.
