How the New Corporate Design is Created

This page provides an overview of the steps and milestones in the course of the project.

The Project Steps

Milestones of the Project

Needs assessment – completed
Design development – current
Brand portal concept

The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2026.

Our revised design guidelines will then gradually be implemented in follow-up projects – for example on the websites.

Needs Assessment

Photo: A person holds a small sheet of green sticky dots behind their back.

We determined the needs and wishes for the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) design through various measures:

In qualitative interviews, students, prospective students, employees from technology and administration as well as from teaching and research reported on their everyday life with the RUB design. This gave us exciting insights into the production of print products, research, work in business rooms and the everyday life of marketing officers in faculties and clusters of excellence.
We collected needs from communication and technology in face-to-face workshops.
In an online survey to which all members of the university were invited in February 2025, we collected feedback from around 700 people. Around 43 percent of these were students. The remainder was divided between academic and administrative staff.

Insights into the Needs Assessment

I want a design that conveys competence and uniformity – and is attractive and independent both nationally and internationally.

– Professor in the opinion survey

Dezernat Hochschulkommunikation: Corporate Design Workshop - EN

Photo: Two people look at a screen that reads "Future starts here."

Impressions from a workshop with students

RUB, Kramer

Dezernat Hochschulkommunikation: Corporate Design Workshop - EN

Photo: A person looks at a table with photos.

Impressions from a workshop with students

RUB, Kramer

Results of the Needs Assessment

The main points of criticism concerned the fonts and the limited color palette of the current corporate design. For example, licensing problems and restrictions regarding fonts and special characters were cited as problematic.

Other feedback focused on the lack of accessibility of the current design, the lack of templates for various tools and a somewhat outdated design that does not meet the requirements for a competitive international image.

Dezernat Hochschulkommunikation: Corporate Design Workshop - EN

Photo: Three people sitting together, smiling and talking.

RUB, Kramer

Design Development

In the design development phase, we bundle the results from the needs assessment and implement them visually, for example in colors, shapes and typography. At the same time, we test our results with focus groups.

For example, we also developed drafts for a new logo during the design development phase. However, these were not well received by students in particular, which is why, together with the AStA, we tested the logo designs against the current logo in a separate survey.

This test was also carried out with external target groups who were not familiar with the logo. The result of both tests was very clearly in favor of the existing logo, which is why it is now being revised on a functional level.

What we already Know

The Ruhr University Bochum blue will remain the most important identification feature of RUB and will be accompanied by other colors: we are becoming more colorful. Ruhr University Bochum currently uses two house fonts, which will be replaced by a single, license-free font in the future.