In 2016, UCLA established its 12th professional school, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The School of Music brought independent yet complementary departments and programs in Ethnomusicology, Global Jazz Studies, Music, and Musicology together in one place.
To capture this transition and introduce the world to the School of Music, UCLA partnered with Kley to transition 15 disparate department and program websites into a single brand identity and experience that conveyed its legacy and prestige alongside a bigger ambition: to introduce the world to a new model of music education.
We worked closely with the School of Music’s faculty, staff and students to gain insight into their first-person experience—one that felt radically different from more traditional music schools. In-depth interviews revealed that high schoolers who have their eyes set on attending a music school, will consider UCLA’s School of Music alongside established leaders in music education, such as The Juilliard School or the New England Conservatory of Music.
What set UCLA apart from these schools was its proximity to the epicenter of contemporary music. Inspired by iconoclastic ethos, we anchored the brand around a rich visual experience that embodied the spirit of newness and nowness.
Our team created the new visual identity with the foundational UCLA brand as well as traits that speak to the uniqueness of the Herb Alpert School of Music. A key element of the school was the incredible architecture of the new building. Taking cues from this structure, we used the shapes found throughout the building as a framing mechanism for photography. This introduced a new visual element specific to the School of Music, surrounded by color and type that is recognizably UCLA.
Kley established a proprietary photography style inspired by the boldness of Pop Art. From storyboards all the way through casting, production design, and photography direction, we captured a series of hero imagery that highlights the diversity of students and of offerings across the school.
