On the 6 October the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation (KADK) launched a new visual identity created by the academy communications department and Urgent Agency. This is not just about graphics but appears to be a major rethink of how the Royal Academy presents itself, its students and their work to a wider public.

The name of the Academy and its design schools has been shortened to Det Kongelige Akademi - Arkitektur, Design, Konservering / The Royal Academy - Architecture, Design, Conservation and there is a new royal seal.

Without doubt, the old branding - with very heavy use of black borders and black blocks - was looking tired and dated and the online site was far from easy to navigate. The complete redesign of the online site cannot have been easy because it is the initial access point to a vast amount of information for students and staff; for potential students; for companies and potential employers and for a broader general public who are looking for information about the libraries, public exhibitions and so on.

Overall, the new visual identity is light and elegant and simple with just four colours - white, a strong and distinct orange, black and a light sand colour.

For all printed material and for the online site there is a new font called Akademi that has low ascenders and short descenders so it forms compact text blocks that are clean, neat and straightforward.

Even if, generally, you are not particularly interested in graphics or typefaces or layout it is worth looking at the online page for the new visual identity because it is itself a model of clarity. There are nice touches like an animation to show the new seal and information about the modular grid to be used for online pages and for all printed work. This is a crucial part of the design … a good grid has done it's job when it brings order and creates a consistent character but you don't register that it is there. Without a good grid, layouts quickly become muddled or crowded but without it being clear to the user exactly why.

Det Kongelige Akademi / Royal Danish Academy
Det Kongelige Akademi - visuelle identitet
Urgent Agency