Identity Projects // Prague Institute

Prague Institute, student project

In 2005, the College of Design at North Carolina State University opened its Prague Institute in the city’s Old Town section. In 2006, the Institute was expanded to include the entire university. An identity is needed to reflect this shift, and it needs to coexist with the University’s existing logo, “the brick.”

I worked through a number of possible solutions, and ultimately chose an identity that responds to the question, “How does one convey geographic duality in a single location?” The border of the Prague Institute logo alludes to the border of Prague’s street signs, a subtle indicator of a pattern very particular to Prague. It works with the boldness of the brick (which also subtly alludes to a geographic particularity, the red brick of NCSU’s campus). The typeface Lunatix was used as an homage to Czechoslovakian-born type designer, Zuzana Licko.

In Autumn of 2006, the designs were presented to the Dean of the College of Design, with the hopes that what began as a student project might evolve into an actual identity.