06. December 2009
International Xchange Erasmus Student Network Repositioning
Repositioning and development of an open design strategy International Xchange Erasmus Student Network
International Xchange Erasmus Student Network (IxESN) is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe, founded in 1989 for supporting and developing student exchange. The organization is present in 339 Higher Education Institutions from 34 countries.
The strategy of the visual language aims at stimulating members to create their own amature designs, based on provided visual language. In cooperation with International International Board, IxESN International board, headquarters Brussels and Koeweiden Postma, Amsterdam (Design), 2004-2006
Go to IxESN
Open design strategy for IxESN
The International Xchange Erasmus Student Network is a voluntary organization in 34 countries across the European continent and has its headquarters in Brussels. The ESN network consists at this moment out of 342 sections. These local associations are functioning as hosting and supporting organizations for student mobility within the European Union. While rapidly expanding the network of local associations this European's largest student network organization needed to be repositioned in order to serve better its network members. Also the I*ESN headquarter in Brussels had to redevelop its relationships with international stakeholders, such as private and public parties. I*ESN has tight relationships with the European Commission.
No design control
The organization and communication culture of I*ESN is characterized by its informality and improvisation. This demanded for an open design strategy, rather than a closed and controlled design system. The open design system gives individual members (non-designers) maximum freedom to develop their own communication material. The traditional set of design parameters, which mostly is based on control needed to be re-thought and were transformed into a mode of open source and almost no design control. The result is a visual language that stimulates individual people to create their own amature designs. A visual overview can be found under the issues section.
Amature design by members
