To our Imperial community,
In just under a week, we launch our new Strategy, and you may have started to see changes around our campuses as we start to roll out our new brand identity.
The Strategy we launch on 5 March will set out how we take a century of scientific discovery, innovation, and real-world impact to the next level to maximise our potential as a force for good in the world.
How we tell Imperial’s story and present our plans to the world directly supports this. Building Imperial’s brand will help us attract the best talent, funding and partnerships and strengthen our global reputation and ranking. Ultimately, it should help us to compete on a sustainable basis in the very top tier internationally.
The way we present ourselves matters. That is why we have developed a modern, confident, and expressive visual and verbal identity, rooted in our science heritage. Both elements articulate Imperial’s purpose and vision, our strengths and impact, while seeking to differentiate us in a crowded and competitive landscape. Our official crest and institutional name remain unchanged, but other elements have evolved, as they do over time for most organisations.
But the Imperial brand is much more than a shade of blue, a logo or a tagline. It is best described as the sum total of everything people see, hear and experience of Imperial. The experience people have when they visit our campuses, or our website, our choice of partners, the focus of our research, how we talk about it – all of these and more shape what our university means to people.
Above all, it is our brilliant people and the world-changing work they do that contribute most to how we are perceived.
During our highly engaging institutional conversation on our new Strategy which began a year ago, I was struck by how many of you urged that we tell our Imperial story with more confidence. I had to agree. There are times when Imperial tends to be overly modest.
In a noisy, competitive and changing world, we cannot assume Imperial’s brilliance will speak for itself.
My thanks also to all the students, staff, alumni and friends who shared ideas and feedback through survey responses and focus groups at the very start of the brand development process in June and July, or through feedback sessions and online responses to the initial creative work in September and October.
Your involvement is also crucial to the next stage of our brand work so I encourage you to visit our Brand pages where you can find out more about the support offered by the brand team and the guidelines and resources available to staff and students.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Strategy launch on 5 March.
Best wishes,
Hugh
President Hugh Brady
Imperial College London