The Concept Behind Our Branding and an Award Won

Harbour.Space is a high-tech university unlike any other in Europe, with the aim of carrying their students to the top. It is important that this characteristic is communicated throughout the school. This means that the logo, social media content, any media related to school need to be consistent and represent the school’s character.

The brand identity Brokhman created for Harbour.Space University delivers the message that this is an innovative university aimed at giving students satisfying and creative top-level professional futures. The identity is consistently carried throughout the logo, posters, brochures, uniform, souvenirs and even an alphabet created specifically for Harbour.Space!

Harbour.Space is something totally different from all you ever thought of a university and that very thing had to be reflected in the design

If you look at the logo of Harbour.Space University, you’ll notice the dot in the middle of two words. Brokhman explains that the design solution behind the logo is the representation of technological singularity through the dot. The technological singularity is the theoretical emergence of superintelligence through technological means.

Here is the interview we carried with Andrey Brokhman.

1. What were your inspirations for this project? How did they influence your work process?

Speaking about the inspirations, I would say that the strongest inspiration was the whole project of the Harbour.Space University, the core idea and the unique system of teaching. And of course, the Harbour.Space team was truly inspiring!

While working on the project, we looked at the high-tech industry and start-up community, computer sciences and the history of computing, the Big Bang Theory and the structure of the Universe, cryptology and binary language, patriotism and student lifestyle, the fantastic location of the school — Barcelona and all the things you can find in the identity.

2. What were the key points you wanted to emphasize about Harbour.Space University’s character when you were creating the brand identity? How did these points come through your design?

We were willing to create an identity that would be absolutely simple, new to the world in terms of graphic instruments, yet very deep in interpretation. We wanted to avoid lots of clichés that most modern logos and identities have and we managed to do that — just the name of the university and a tiny dot — the components that gave us that colossal depth we wanted. The point of the idea is that Harbour.Space is something totally different from all you ever thought of a university and that very thing had to be reflected in the design.

3. You created a whole new alphabet to be used by Harbour.Space community, which represents the school’s identity. How did you come up with this solution and what was your work process like?

We found out that universities belong to “patriotic” type of brands (like countries and cities or sport teams, for example). Students continue to be proud of and to love their university, even long after they graduate. So, we searched for something that would reflect patriotism more than a flag, anthem or a coat of arms.

We understood that this thing should probably be the language they communicate in, and we decided to create a whole new alphabet, based on the historical binary codes of letters and the shapes of the typical Barcelona city blocks.

So if the person you meet can read or write in Pango (the name we gave for the alphabet), you can tell for sure that he is a part of the warm and strong Harbour.Space family.

4. What are some of your future plans to improve on the identity system?

Our plans are to continue working on the applications of the identity, because every system can unfold only in dynamics and real-life. The identity is still young and it takes some time for it to mature.

5. Your design for Harbour.Space was appreciated by many and you have even won an award by A’Design Award & Competition. What would you say were the key points to your success?

I believe that the point here is the love and inspiration that both design studio and client feels for the project, only this kind of synergy gives the result we achieved. We met minimum edits on the designs we sent and it went in total harmony during all the scope, mostly because we were as much inspired as the Harbour.Space team. And we became true friends. And that’s the secret. :)