Dalhousie University Hospitality Brand System

The Challenge

Dalhousie University needed a unified hospitality brand system spanning 5 dining halls and 8+ retail cafés across multiple campuses—while honoring the institution's 200-year heritage and connecting with today's students.

This was part of Compass Group Canada's $180 million RFP response to Dalhousie University. The timeline: 4 weeks to develop a comprehensive brand strategy that could transform campus dining into a cohesive, branded experience.

The existing dining program lacked cohesive visual identity. Each location operated with inconsistent branding, making wayfinding difficult and diluting the overall campus dining experience. The solution needed to be implementable at scale—from signage to digital menu boards to environmental graphics—while respecting Dalhousie's established visual identity.

This wasn't just logo design. It was creating an entire brand ecosystem that could flex across vastly different contexts: from traditional dining halls serving hundreds to intimate coffee shops, from quick-service retail to specialty concepts like boba tea.

Strategic Approach: Three-Tier Brand Architecture

I developed a hierarchical brand system with three distinct levels, each serving a specific strategic purpose:

Design Principles: Geometric, symmetrical, high-contrast, authoritative—modernized heritage that speaks to students while respecting tradition. The tone is confident, modern, inclusive, and human. Friendly but aspirational.

Research & Brand DNA

Before designing a single logo, I conducted deep research into Dalhousie's existing brand system. The goal: create a hospitality identity that feels like a natural extension of the university, not an external addition.

I deconstructed Dalhousie's visual language—the typography, the color palette (black and gold), the iconic eagle crest. I identified a distinctive design element in the crest—an abstracted beak/wing form I termed the "Dalcon." This shape became a unifying motif throughout my brand system, creating subtle visual connections back to the university's heritage.

Exploration & Ideation

I explored multiple concept territories—from laurel wreaths to shield systems to typographic solutions—testing which visual language could best scale across the entire hospitality ecosystem.

Why laurels? Laurels are deeply embedded in academic tradition—the word "laureate" comes from this symbolism. A wreath made of leaves/grain also ties naturally to harvest, abundance, and community. The central circle is flexible: it can symbolize the table, the plate, the sun, or unity.

Beyond the master brand, I explored how iconography, color systems, and naming conventions could work together to differentiate locations while maintaining family resemblance. Coffee cups, wheat stalks, leaves, and geometric forms were tested as potential icon systems.

Environmental Design & Real-World Application

The brand system extends to physical environments—from interior signage to digital menu boards to retail kiosk design. Each touchpoint reinforces the cohesive identity while respecting the unique character of each space.

I developed complete environmental mockups showing how the brand would appear in real dining hall settings. The system needed to work at every scale: from small wayfinding signs to building-scale exterior signage to digital menu animations.

Retail Café Identities: Distinct Personalities, Unified System

Beyond the core dining program, I developed complete environmental identities for retail café locations—each with distinct personality while remaining part of the Dalhousie family.

Each café concept received full branding: logo lockups, color palettes, typography systems, and environmental mockups. The designs needed to appeal to different student demographics while maintaining visual cohesion with the master brand.

Concept 02: The Woodblock System

The second direction takes a bolder, more graphic approach—using the "DalU Eats" naming with shield-based architecture that connects every level of dining directly back to Dalhousie's main identity.

The "DalU Eats" mark combines an abstracted eagle head (derived from the Dalcon) with a shield frame, directly tying food to Dalhousie's crest identity. Dining halls receive squared icons with feather-like details. Cafés use rounded icons in brand colors. The system offers stronger environmental presence and a more bold, graphic approach.

This alternative demonstrates strategic versatility: presenting multiple directions allows stakeholders to choose the brand personality that best fits their vision—classic and refined (Concept 01) or bold and contemporary (Concept 02).

Complete Deliverables

This project required more than visual concepts—it demanded a production-ready, enterprise-scale brand system that could be implemented across 13+ locations.

What I Delivered:

• → Complete brand architecture strategy and positioning
• → 2 fully-developed concept directions with rationale
• → Master brand identity with multiple lockups and variations
• → 5 dining hall sub-brand identities with unique icons and color systems
• → 8+ café/retail brand identities with full environmental concepts
• → Environmental design mockups showing real-world application
• → Digital menu board templates and signage specifications
• → Typography system, color palettes, and usage guidelines
• → 24-page client presentation deck with strategic rationale

Timeline: Completed in 4 weeks as sole designer—from initial research and strategy through final deliverables and presentation.

Results & Impact

This comprehensive brand system was developed as part of Compass Group Canada's $180M RFP response to Dalhousie University. The work represents a complete, implementation-ready identity system designed for enterprise-scale deployment.

"The proposal demonstrates how a unified hospitality identity can transform campus dining—from wayfinding to student engagement to brand perception."

This project demonstrates:

• • Enterprise-scale brand architecture for complex, multi-location systems
• • Strategic thinking beyond aesthetics—creating hierarchies that guide implementation
• • Research-driven design rooted in existing brand DNA and institutional heritage
• • Versatility across contexts—traditional dining halls to specialty retail concepts
• • Complete visual systems ready for production and rollout
• • Rapid execution without sacrificing depth or quality
• • Presentation skills that communicate vision and strategy to stakeholders