OC Internal Team

Risa Forrester
Tessa Wright
Sarah Horton
Hayley Bentley
Jacob Sullivan

Groundwork Interviews

Universities are extremely complex organizations. The demographic variation between stakeholders is vast. We had no business telling OC who they were. We had to listen and find out for ourselves. 

Switch conducted over 80 hours of interviews with 90+ campus members over a 4 week period. Participants included current students, alumni, incoming students, happy students, disgruntled students, professors, staff members, trustees, department heads, and presidents. 

The conclusion of the exercise was a comprehensive report of our findings. The report outlined joys and frustrations felt across campus. It identified stories not being told, people not being championed, and voices not being heard. This report acted as the base of all decision making in the coming phases.

A New Messaging Strategy

The primary finding during our interview/discovery phase was that OC wasn't many of the stereotypical things you associate with college life. There is no Greek system, football team, or expected university architecture.

In search of where OC pride came from, we had to pivot from the normal way of thinking about university pride. We found that when we asked about why people were proud to be associated with OC, there was always a story — a trip, a class, a professor, a friend. 

We constructed OC's new messaging strategy around this concept: The World Awaits Your Story. Rather than abstract statistics and rankings, the new voice of OC would be shared through real, tangible action, experience, and results. 

Efficient Brand System

The cost of implementing a complete rebrand is not easy for any organization, much less a private university. In order to offset this cost, we designed a smart system that allowed OC to retain existing brand installations around campus. 

Previous to the rebrand, OC's primary typeface was Standard Condensed. By keeping the typeface in the brand system and reimagining its use, it allowed almost all wayfinding and department signage to remain untouched while still consistent with the new brand.

These typographic decisions saved the university substantial costs in the campus rebranding effort.  

Brand Development

Variable Color System

During the Discovery process, we learned that there was frustration among academic leaders that their admissions materials were the same from department to department. The OC brand system now allows for variation in color and layout, allowing each department to show their personality while remaining consistent with the university brand. 

Rally Guide

As faculty & staff returned to campus in the Summer of '19, OC leadership wanted to share the process of the rebrand in a transparent manner. We created the rally guide as an introduction to the new brand, but also a behind the scenes look at what lead to each decisions throughout the process. 

Campaign Pattern 

While the core brand system of logos, type and color were designed to last for decades, a geometric pattern system was implemented for the launch of the brand. This was designed to show the full scale of the new color system and introduce the brand in an exciting way. In the future, other campaigns will take over while the core brand remains intact.

Translating to the Digital Space

Translating the brand to a new OC website was as much of a comprehensive process as the brand itself.  

Switch lead the effort to rebuild the site from the ground up alongside the internal OC team. We created a modular system that allowed for various forms of content to meld together seamlessly and efficiently for the OC team. 

A smarter search system was created to help prospective students, as well as students changing directions during their time at OC, to easily learn about departments and programs in a way that intelligently aligns with their passions and interests.

Immediate Boost

After rethinking and executing OC's online presence, the Admissions team immediately felt the positive impact of the combination of their new brand and its new website. 

Specifically, a significant jump in requests for on-campus visits yielded positive engagement for prospective OC students around the world.