UCL

The Brief

The All Academic Festival is one of University College London's flagship events, bringing together researchers, academics and professional services teams to celebrate innovation, collaboration and the impact of research across the university. I was tasked with creating the festival's visual identity and delivering a cohesive creative campaign across print, digital and environmental design that would engage a broad internal audience.

My Thinking

Rather than creating a traditional corporate event identity, I wanted the creative concept to reflect the nature of research itself. During my time studying at university, research was rarely a polished, linear process—it was messy, iterative and built through collecting ideas, annotations, references and experimentation. That insight became the foundation of the campaign.

I explored the idea of a research scrapbook: pages filled with discoveries, highlighted notes, paper textures and layered compositions that communicated curiosity and exploration. The concept felt authentic to the academic experience while giving the festival a distinctive personality that stood apart from conventional university communications.

Creative Rationale

The visual system combined textured paper backgrounds, cut-out shapes, hand-crafted compositions and bold pops of colour to create a contemporary scrapbook aesthetic. These elements represented the process of gathering knowledge, connecting ideas and building research over time.

Typography and layout were designed to balance creativity with clarity, ensuring information remained accessible across posters, brochures, digital screens, social media, signage and exhibition materials. The flexible design system allowed the identity to adapt seamlessly across every touchpoint while remaining instantly recognisable.

The Results

I led the project from concept through to final delivery, producing a complete suite of campaign assets across print and digital. The unified visual identity helped establish a consistent presence throughout the festival, creating an engaging experience across physical spaces and online communications while giving the event a fresh, contemporary feel that reflected UCL's culture of innovation and discovery.

What I Learnt

This project reinforced the value of grounding creative ideas in genuine insight rather than decoration. By connecting the visual identity to the lived experience of academic research, I created a concept that felt meaningful, memorable and authentic. It also strengthened my ability to build scalable design systems, collaborate with multiple stakeholders and maintain creative consistency across a wide variety of formats.