As staff have returned to the campus in 2015 they’ve been welcomed by an old friend on Wally’s Walk – the Macquarie Lighthouse, which features in the University’s refreshed visual identity.

Since our last update in December, the University’s Shared Identity project has passed a number of milestones, including:

• Over 500 staff and suppliers have attended training sessions on how to work in the new look, feel and language.
• From January 15 the public transition to the new brand began.
• A brand implementation group met regularly to help faculties and offices manage the challenges of a major rebranding exercise.
• The Shared Identity team has been hard at work answering upwards of 80 brand enquiries a day and working with stakeholders around the campus to refine and approve over 250 pieces of marketing and communication collateral.

Project Director Luke Williams says the University community has been enthusiastic about the new narrative and visual identity, and has appreciated the need for improved governance and approval processes.

“There’s a real momentum building: we’re completely transforming how we represent ourselves to the world, and staff are really getting on board with it, as you can see by how quickly everyone is transitioning to the new email footers.”

There are a range of future dates worth noting, including:

• Cut off for old brand material for external audiences - 15 March, 2015
• Rollout of digital re-skin commences – websites and web-apps rebranded 16 March, 2015. This includes a re-skin of the University website, an interim solution while we wait for the web transformation project to deliver the new public website
• Cut off for old brand material for current staff audiences - 26 June, 2015
• Cut off for old brand material for current student audiences - 26 June, 2015.

Macquarie Sustainability is working to provide responsible disposal of old brand collateral and more information will follow in coming weeks.