Cadmus

Rather than abandon the quill, we evolved it. Tilted to 45 degrees and streamlined, it was brought to life through animation, moving with flourish as if wielded by a busy academic rather than sitting dormant on a page. The colour palette drew from an unexpected source. Renaissance-era paintings provided the reference point, rich deep tones colour-picked from works created during a period when education thrived. To keep the identity from feeling stuffy, we created Renaissance-style illustrations featuring modern-day students and academics, phones in hand, cats in laps, crafted through a mixed media collage process before being vectorised and colourised for flexibility across digital and print. The typographic system paired Realm, a semi-serif headline typeface blending Old English and Roman influences, with Inter, a modern open-source variable font, balancing historical reference with contemporary function across platform interfaces, marketing materials, and event collateral. The strategic proposition, Uplifting Assessment, ran through every decision. Website animations float upward. The quill flicks and sweeps. Every motion reinforces a feeling of lightness against what students and educators know can be a heavy, stressful process.