Has University is the educational and expertise knowledge centre in the south of The Netherlands for the food, agriculture and horticulture, green open space, nature, environment and agribusiness sectors. The biggest communication problem for the university is the fact that young adults in general don’t want to be seen as farmers. Farming and being a farmer has changed and so has the university. The challenge for Studio Kluif was to change the negative farmer image into something contemporary, young and appealing. Kluif designed proposals for a new brand identity for Has University, including the corporate identity and the ‘Has been’ image campaign.
HAS corporate identity, 2008
Studio Kluif used the typical symbol of Dutch farmers, the wooden clog, and attributed different ‘skins’ to it, each corresponding to a different area of study. The results are a symbiosis between heritage and contemporaneity. Each sector gets its own wooden clog, which is used throughout the university’s communication system: from stationery to infographics and as a piece of art in the school garden.
HAS wooden clog ‘Food Design’, 2008
HAS wooden clog ‘Agribusiness’, 2008
HAS wooden clog ‘Food technology’, 2008
HAS wooden clogs pattern, 2008
HAS corporate identity, 2008
HAS giveaways, 2008
We made ‘I love the smell of food’, ‘I love the smell of stalls’ and ‘I love the smell of open fields’ deodorants as an enticing giveaway for potential students to present the university. Other giveaways are university-brewed beer and bouquets of flowers from the university’s greenhouse.
HAS ‘Has been’ image campaign, 2008
Studio Kluif used images of objects that are stereotypically associated with farming and farmers in the ‘Has been’ image campaign. In the old days, all young farmers, for example, had a Zündapp moped and milk was stored and transported in metal cans. The images have titles that include the phrase ‘has been’ (the word ‘has’ printed as the school’s logo). In the same way that farming and being a farmer have changed, so has the university.
