The last large-scale renewal of ITMO's style was in 2014, when the university got its short name — ITMO University, and the new logo and tagline — "IT's MOre than a University". All of that reflects the global changes in the university's structure. We'd like to remind that starting with 2013, ITMO University is part of Project 5−100 — a program aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Russian universities on the international education market.
During the last several years, the process of integrating into the international scientific community was marked by several key projects that hold great significance to not just the university, but St. Petersburg as a whole. Last year, ITMO got UNESCO's gold medal for creating a "unique university environment", as well as got 56th position in THE's Computer Science rating. Two years earlier, the university confirmed its status as one of the best educational establishments for programmers: in 2015, ITMO became six times champion of ACM ICPC.
According to Anna Veklich, Head of Strategic Communications Department, the growing number of international projects and rapid integration into the international academic community called for actualizing the university's corporate style.
The results of the changes made since 2013 had a positive effect on ITMO's position in subrankings that have to do with university brands. For instance, each year ITMO University demonstrates dynamic growth in the annual National University Rankings by Interfax: since 2014, it went from 53rd to 12th position. The university's brand and sense of style is highly appreciated on the international arena, as well. In 2016, ITMO University's English portal got bronze as "Best International Website" at the prestigious QS-APPLE conference.
Rector Vladimir Vasilyev with ITMO's brand products
According to the new concept, the foundation of the first non-classical's development are the following four areas: research-oriented, international, entrepreneurship and person-focused. The new Brandbook 2.0 is in a sense a recollection of using ITMO's corporate style for the past three years. Having browsed through it, one can see how ITMO's brand gradually changed with each year. The current version of the brandbook also includes a part on the university's official accounts in social networks — Facebook, "ВКонтакте" and Instagram.
Also, special attention is paid to development and promotion of ITMO's sub-brands, which supplement the basic brand and are aimed at different target groups.
ITMO.LOVE and ITMO.RUSSIA. Daria Kozlova, Vice Rector for International Relations
"It is simple and understandable that when a basic brand starts to develop, it calls for developing additional sub-brands. They support and promote the basic one, and are aimed at particular target groups, comments Alexey Minaev, head of ITMO's Advertising Office. All in all, in comparison with the last brandbook, we've updated about 70% of content. Now, we show how to work with different image-building tools, exhibition materials, develop new opportunities in the field of promotional merchandise. What's more, during recent years we've created new fonts, changed our color palette and defined new requirements for photographs — all of these changes are important and correspond to the latest trends in building a brand image."
As of now, ITMO's sub-brands include:
ITMO.FAMILY — the university's atmosphere and unity, the basis which envelops all of the university's development fields.
ITMO.LOVE — a new development from 2016; the team's flagship brand that helps to work, study and conduct creative projects;
ITMO.SPB — positions ITMO as a truly St. Petersburg university;
ITMO.RUSSIA — a sub-brand that was developed for representing the university on the international arena as a new type of Russian university;
ITMO.START — reflects the opportunities offered by ITMO to school students, is aimed at attracting talented and motivated applicants;
ITMO.NEWS — a sub-brand of ITMO's news portal that publishes news in both Russian and English — both related to the university and different national and international events, as well as materials aimed at popularizing science among general public.
You can check out the new brandbook here.
If you have any questions, contact the Advertising Office.
