Project / Tashkent State Technical University
Task / Logo & Visual Identity, Stationery, Corporate Identity Guidelines
Client / Tashkent State Technical University
Year/ mid-90s
The Faculty of Business Management of the Tashkent State Technical University—one of the oldest universities in Uzbekistan—engaged us for a logo and visual identity programme.
Logo
We were initially asked to design a contemporary logo to present the faculty as a modern business school. However, the focus gradually shifted during design development, and we were finally requested to use the state emblem of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
We were given some liberty to ‘improve’ and alter the state emblem for the faculty, but for propriety reasons, took a more cautious approach.
For the faculty’s logo, we enlarged the image of the Khumo and introduced navy blue as its primary colour (navy blue is considered a ‘trustworthy’ colour, often associated with finance and business).
The new logo designed by our studio.
“We had a similar experience with Vietnam in the early 2000s. The management of a subsidiary of PetroViet opined that the corporate logo looked too dated for their new venture and wanted a more contemporary symbol to reflect the new dynamism of the country.
Our logo design was approved by the management of the subsidiary after several rounds of visual presentations. However, when presented to the Head Office, it was rejected instead, and the subsidiary had to revert back to the old logo.
Socialist countries need time to re-examine their visual identities to keep up with the modern world and a new generation of audience—hopefully, without losing their own cultural identity.”
VISUAL IDENTITY
Despite the traditional logo, we were able to create a contemporary visual identity for the faculty by introducing a simple and clean typographic style, as well as a system of dual language in its stationery and collaterals.
This was our studio’s first experience working with the Cyrillic script, a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia.
