UCLA Architecture & Urban Design Identity by Eddie Opara

What a perfect identity design for UCLA’s Architecture & Urban Design program. The abstract letterforms express what architecture has become. Rigidness and straight lines are a thing of the past, new architecture is innovative, ever-changing through shapes and angles. It has evolved into a form of expression, an art form in the largest of scales. Graphic Designer for the identity, Eddie Opara, hit the nail on the head when he designed this for UCLA. Not only will it work today, it’s abstract letterforms can carry well into the future of Architecture and the school’s program.

Unfortunately the identity was declined.

The Architecture & Urban Design program was all for it, even pushed it more that Eddie did, but the final say-so came down to UCLA. The new identity was in use for about 1 year and created much buzz and desire to attend the program. But it wasn’t meant to be. UCLA who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their current logo and implementation, decided it was in the best interest of the school not to use it.

Although the mark didn’t make it, it’s logotype still did. And if you visit the website, a form of the logo still exists in a brief 3 second period during the intro. Eddie cleverly incorporated his identity design into the intro, turning the abstract wordmark into abstract figures, unrecognizable to UCLA heads. Check the site for yourself.