VANCOUVER—Design Edge recently reported on the international student site that Tribal DDB designed for UBC. Thanks to your comments we discovered that the school’s main site has also recently had a face-lift. Randy Schmidt, associate director of public affairs at UBC says that the redesign is a result of two years of research and a new brand platform. “We embarked on an effort to develop what our big brand story was,” he says. “We have about 50,000 students and 10,000 staff. It was a major effort and we are very happy with where it ended.”


The new brand tagline is UBC – a place of mind, a theme that portrays not only a sense of openness but also a more professional feel, says Marcel Dasilva, account manager at Vancouver-based Fjord, an interactive division of Cossette, who worked with Arlene Cotter, manager, graphic design at UBC on the redesign.

Dasilva says Fjord won the redesign project when the new brand was in its early days. “We got the design contract for us to take this new brand, which pretty much only lived in words up to that point and came up with a new design for their corporate web presence,” he says. “There was a desire to have a more professional looking site, UBC wanted to position itself as a tier one university.”

In addition to giving the site a more sophisticated look, DaSilva says UBC wanted it to have a strong social media component. “We wanted to show a commitment to those big ideas that are developed through open dialogue,” he says. “The site is updated many times daily with thought provoking stories from around campus. The content is pulled onto the site from associated blogs through using an RSS.” In addition, he says the site gives visitors the opportunity to microblog on it. “We essentially ask visitors what can you do from here? What can you do to support this brand? It proves the university community is engaged, interested and willing to throw in their two cents.” Contact: Ubc.ca, Cossetteinteractive.com