Graz Jurisprudence
Graz Jurisprudence is the Department of Legal Philosophy of the University of Graz. Founded in 2015, as a continuation of a previous institute, it aimed at developing a modern and analytic approach to the study of law.
The challenge was to make the department distinguishable, while at the same time fulfilling the branding requirements of the University of Graz. Further, at the time, the idea of having a communication and social media strategy was not yet well established in the Faculty of Law, so that prior pioneering and persuasion work was necessary.
The core idea for the Graz Jurisprudence branding (2016–2019) was to connect its modern approach to the study of law with some warm elements typically associated with the city of Graz. This was expressed by means of clean typography and layouts, the update of a specific red employed previously by the Faculty of Law and the use of the landmark of Graz, the Clock Tower, as a decorative component.
The logo was extremely simple. It aimed at reducing the long name of the department to its initials so that it could be easily remembered as "GJ"
The main applications of the GJ Branding were posts for disseminating the GJ activities in social media as well as corporate stationery—eg. bookmarks, business cards, greetings cards.
The Instagram and Facebook accounts reported the activities of the GJ team as well as the GJ daily working life. This was complemented with particular views of the architecture of the Faculty of Law and some playful word games connected to the topics of the department.
An important part of the GJ branding was developing a photographic style. This style took distance from the flat approach of event photography at universities. Instead, I played with different angles, interacted with objects of the classrooms, and used a crystal prism for reaching unexpected visual effects.
Graz Jurisprudence branding and social media strategy were a success. Part of the current international recognition of this department of legal philosophy comes from having developed an effective branding for disseminating its members's academic activities.
