April 21, 2021

Striking red posters with mathematical signs (operators) in Karlsruhe and the surrounding area aroused the interest of many people in the past few days. Other displays around the city, too, announced that a major change was imminent. Vice-President Prof. Dr. Robert Pawlowski revealed the secret and publicly presented the new corporate design and the new website of the university in a video event and in front of members of the press. "Today is a great day in the history of the university," said President Prof. Dr. Frank Artinger at the presentation. "And I am extremely pleased that we have succeeded in defining our values and future direction together over the past two years and expressing them with a new corporate design. I am convinced that this will position us very well in the higher education landscape in the future and make us even more attractive to all our target groups, but especially to prospective students."

New university name and fresh, modern design

The central element of the new appearance of Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences is a new university logo: The abbreviation "HKA" (graphically +IKA) is composed of stylized mathematical operators and thus picks up on the core competence of the university – applied sciences. The central color red remains – in a slightly different hue – the same. In order to better express the diversity of subjects and study programs, the red color will in future be accompanied by six other colors for the different faculties. The redesign also entails a change of the German name of the university: From today on, the university will appear simply as "Hochschule Karlsruhe" and will dispense with the previous affix "Technik und Wirtschaft" (Technology and Business). The English name, "Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences", will stay the same.

New web address and user-friendly website

The changes in external presentation are also accompanied by a change in the domain: as of today, the old Internet address "www.hs-karlsruhe.de" has become the shorter, simpler and thus very memorable "www.h-ka.de". This is also connected with the change of the e-mail addresses of all university members, who can now also be reached with their names under @h-ka.de. With the new website, HKA is not only implementing the new design, but is also taking a completely new conceptual direction. The structuring and presentation of the content is now better oriented to the information needs of the individual target groups such as prospective students, students, partners in industry, research, and science. In doing so, the university is making a shift in perspective from a more institution-focused presentation to a fully user-focused one.

Campus and university development

The new corporate design of HKA stands for the vision expressed in the university's 2030+ Master Plan. "We want to fundamentally change the face of our university in accordance with the vision 'emission-free campus 2030+' over the next few years, and we want to do this with the participation of university employees in agile processes," says Prof. Dr. Robert Pawlowski, Vice-President for Development, Construction, and Infrastructure. "The existing building stock will be supplemented with ecologically and economically sensible solutions and expanded with new buildings in sustainable construction. Social spaces for the exchange of students, professors, and employees will be created and campus life will become more attractive." Numerous initiatives relating to the master plan have already been implemented in the recent past, such as the redesign of the campus center as a place for learning and working together. Applied to the CD, this means that special attention is also paid to sustainability in the production of print products and merchandising items. And the development continues, of course: For example, the implementation of a completely new guidance system on the university campus in tune with the new CD is planned for the near future.

New CD as an expression of a jointly defined identity

The development of the CD was preceded by an intensive and collaborative process of branding. With the participation of all university members in various formats – in addition to workshops, conferences, meetings, site inspections, etc., these also included a large online survey of all university members with almost 1,000 participants as well as a first joint campus event – it was possible to define the values for which the university stands, what makes it special and which qualities students, employees, and partners can expect from it. Competence and practical relevance, innovation and passion, sustainability and responsibility, diversity and a spirit of community are the central attributes that emerged from this process. They constitute the self-image of HKA, which from today on is also visible to the outside world. 

The process of realigning the university and developing the corporate identity/the corporate design was accompanied by the agencies CAPITALE (Wien, Berlin)  und Schöne Neue Kinder (SNK, München).

A short video on the launch of the new HKA CD is available on the web page www.h-ka.de .