European Consortium of Innovative Universities unveils new branding

The European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) - of which Dublin City University is the only Irish member - has unveiled its new branding.

ECIU has 12 partner institutions, including DCU, with a number of different societal stakeholders and different target audiences

The ECIU University is the first European university where learners and researchers cooperate with cities and businesses to solve real-life challenges.

In September, the Presidents of each of the ECIU member universities came to DCU to discuss their plans for the innovative university model, the ECIU Alliance, which was officially launched two months later in November.  

With this launch, the ECIU now intends to focus future activity through the university, making the ECIU University the face of the ECIU Alliance.

Hence the requirement for a ‘new look’ in keeping with the new identity. 

“The set up of a long-lasting new organisation needs recognised brand, look and feel; it has to be robust and accepted by all; it has to also mark the beginning of the new endeavour. The new visual identity will give colour to the ECIU University activities,” says Sander Lotze, Project Director at the ECIU University.

Lotze adds that the new identity has a clear connection to the previous visuality of the ECIU, so people who know the old logo can still relate to it.

“But at the same time, it is a very clear new brand. And even more important is that the visual identity sends out a fresh, modern message. 

“It embodies our core values of who we are and how we want to present ourselves. Moreover, it shows that we want to build something new; it gives space to use it next to the own local university brand and, last but not least, it is appealing to different target groups”, he says.

Deirdre Wynter, Head of Marketing for DCU, said all member institutions were involved in the process behind the new brand. 

“The creation of the new ECIU visual identity was a collaborative, inclusive process, involving representatives from all partner universities. 

“Special care was taken to ensure that the new brand identiy would reflect not only the contemporary nature of the new ECIU University, but also the ECIU’s strong legacy in innovation and entrepreneurship over the past 23 years,” she added. 

.Members of the ECIU are: Aalborg University, Denmark. Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Dublin City University, Ireland. Hamburg University of Technology, Germany. Linköping University, Sweden. Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. University of Nottingham, UK. University of Stavanger, Norway. University of Trento, Italy. Tampere University, Finland. University of Twente, the Netherlands, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico.

For more information, please go to https://www.eciu.org/