Guild of Automation and Systems Technology: Designing Continuity

Client:

Guild of Automation and Systems Technology

Year:

2022

Role:

Visual Identity Designer

Deliverables:

Content

Categories:

Website Design

Visual Identity

The Guild of Automation and Systems Technology (AS) is Aalto University's guild for students majoring in Information Technology, Automation Control Engineering, and Digital Systems and Design. My collaboration with AS began in October 2022 as the lead designer for the guild's visual identity redesign. The objective was to create something future-forward yet recognizable to the guild's current values and community.

Challenge

The main challenge was how to redesign the visual identity so that the current community doesn't become alienated from the redesign, while still creating something bold and future-forward.

Animated preview of the visual identity guidelines

Process

My design process had an emphasis on user centric design. AS hosted a logo redesign competition for it's community, and the entries were used as a source of inspiration for the redesign. The most common themes were the combination of a gear symbol and sine wave, circular form, and incorporating the letters "A" and "S."

AS at Otatarha Grand Prix, 2024 – Photo: Leevi Hormaluoma

Overall patch design

Logo animation celebrating Pride Month, 2024 — Photo: @askilta on Instagram

Solution

The new logo is a combination of two elements: a gear symbol, which is a reference to AS's old logo, and an abstract sine wave, which appeared in the logo competition ideas. The new visual identity respects the restrictions and history of symbolism, visuals, and color of AS, but translates it into a bold and future-forward tone. The brand style guide consists of logo, color and typography, made to be understandable to the user: a clear set of instructions and supporting visual examples.