New identity: The renaming from FHWS to THWS is more than just a change of name.
The focus is on uniting the diverse facets at the higher education institution with the new corporate identity to create a new uniform image – and to distinguish the public image.
Published on 02 November 2023
On 27 June 2022 during the opening of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIRO), the Minister-President of Bavaria, Dr. Markus Söder, officially announced that the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, also known as FHWS, will become a technical university of applied sciences by 1 January 2023. Now, the higher education institution bears a new name: Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, THWS in short.
The idea and the desire for a new name and a new identity, however, emerged much sooner. Development and authorisation of the new identity and the transition required a great lot of creativity, motivation, and organisation. The new identity also required the collaboration of many different personalities who enabled the transition.
Visualising the new CI
Professor Henning Rogge-Pott is in charge of the new design. He is the initiator of the project Identity 23, he is a designer and professor at the Faculty of Design. “I slipped into this by coincidence”, he says with a chuckle. Already in 2018 when he still acted as dean of the Faculty of Design, he launched the idea of a new identity for the higher education institution. After his term of office as dean, he was still left in charge of this project. “We noticed that we had problems with the inconsistencies of the identity, also regarding logos and such things,” Professor Rogge-Pott explains. In the creation phase of the new design, a team of students created the sketches for the new design in collaboration with him and Professor Uli Braun, who is also a member of the Faculty of Design.
Transition to THWS
The project team, consisting of project manager Claudia Kunze and project coordinator Alexander Pfarr, was responsible for the actual transition. The team’s project start was in November 2022 and thus entailed a tight schedule. “At the beginning, we created a project plan with time lines and prioritisations. We had to evaluate who must change what and where the FHWS-logo was being used”, Kunze explains. First, all externally visible media, like the website, social media channels, e-mail addresses, and logos had to be changed. The internal media like stamps, lecture notes, and signs were changed in the course of the year. Not only the project and corporate identity team were involved in the transition, but also the university management, the Department of Public Affairs and Communications (HSK), the IT Service Center (ITSC), the Facilities Management (HSGM), and the Department of Property Management. All of these institutions either acted on their own or were involved in decision-making. “We are the spider in the web that is responsible for coordinating,” Pfarr says.
The objective was to make the transition as smooth and well-organised as possible for everyone involved. “There were surprisingly few problems with changing digital media and of e-mail addresses because the ITSC found excellent solutions to smooth the transition,” Pfarr explains. Throughout the transition process communicating with the parties involved and passing on information was crucial. The overall collaboration with the faculties and departments was very positive. ”It only went that well because everyone contributed”, Kunze concludes.
Stronger identity, reduced letterhead feels
One reason for the transition is the technical specialisation that the higher education institution has had since its foundation. The higher education institution also wants to improve its external image because the technical focus of a higher education institution is still of particular societal relevance in Germany, a country still deemed the “country of engineers”. The new orientation also brings about monetary advantages. Another reason was the inconsistency surrounding the official name of the higher education institution and the logo. In the past, the higher education institution had the official German name “Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften” (university of applied sciences). However, due to the logo FHWS, many jumped to the conclusion that this was the acronym for “Fachhochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt”. “This situation is now changed through the new writing, and we can only hope that the higher education institution will be perceived as a technical university in future instead of a Fachhochschule,”, Kunze says.
The new corporate identity has many advantages over the former image of the higher education institution. “Our main problem was that it did not feel like one identity,” Professor Rogge-Pott explains. “The old CI did not offer the chance to form sub-brands and sub-logos. This led to lots of solo action. So it became more and more frayed. Now the whole CI was reduced down to the basics.” With the implementation of the new design we also released a corporate design manual, that contains information on the logo, on fonts, and on the colour concept, among others. All departments and faculties now also have so-called brand ambassadors. In a workshop they were instructed to generally understand the rules of the new CI so that they may now pass on this knowledge. Every Friday, there is an open Zoom meeting with Professor Rogge-Pott. “There you get direct feedback on your own sketches. This supports the applicants in getting accustomed with and implementing the new design,” Kunze explains.
Dynamic interconnectedness and recognition
There is a philosophy behind the new CI: “The basic idea is that we merge. The icon also works that way. There constantly are new structures, new connections, new interconnections, and yet the code is always dynamic and never the same,” Professor Rogge-Pott explains. “Individual departments should have the chance to communicate freely and independently, but there is also a system as a whole.”
The concept of corporate identity originated in the corporate sector. However, CI can also be applied to other organisations. “The CI brings about clear and uniform communication. That you experience a choir instead of individual voices, as a choir is always more powerful than one individual voice,” says Professor Rogge-Pott. In particular in the competition for students, employees, and practice partners, a clear and uniform identity is a major advantage. The objective of the new identity is to create a clear, confident, and coherent image of the higher education institution that leads to recognition. “You create a big wave instead of multiple small ones. That way you get a larger force”, Professor Rogge-Pott says. The identity is supposed to have internal and external effects. It is supposed to solve the problem of dissimilarity and inconsistency inside and outside of the higher education institution.
It will take some time to change every sign, every flyer, and every last detail. Yet, the plan is to complete the project comprehensively by the end of the year. Professor Henning Rogge-Pott can already draw a conclusion: “Everything as a whole went surprisingly well. If you consider that we all initiated it ourselves. It emerged from within the higher education institution. We considered many views. We included many opinions. And still we managed to find a simple and clear solution.”
