IBM | HBCU Quantum Center
Centered on Excellence
A brand identity for the IBM–HBCU Quantum Center, where quantum computing meets cultural heritage.
02 Overview
Challenge
The IBM–HBCU Quantum Center needed an identity that could stand confidently beside IBM’s global brand while honoring the legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I worked with the program team to shape a system that carries both.
Deliverables
Logo system, color palette, type hierarchy, a signature pattern language, and applied collateral across print, signage, and digital.
Objectives
Designed in Figma and Illustrator. The goal was a flexible identity that signals scientific rigor and inclusive representation across every touchpoint.
My Role
Brand strategy, logo design, visual system, pattern design, and mockup art direction.
03 Brief / Mission
The IBM–HBCU Quantum Center exists to widen access to quantum computing education. The brand had to feel precise and future-facing like IBM, while centering the students and cultures it serves, present, precise, and representative in equal measure.
Present
The identity shows up boldly and consistently, giving the Center an unmistakable presence wherever it appears.
Precise
Every element is built on IBM’s grid discipline, exact, structured, and engineered like the science it represents.
Representation
Cultural symbols, the stool and Kente cloth, are woven in intentionally, so the community sees itself reflected in the brand.
04 Logo
Logo Variations
The mark extends IBM’s eight-bar logo, reinterpreting the bars as qubits and layering in motifs drawn from West African heritage.
Element Cards
05 Color
Core Palette
This core palette is bright and pragmatic. Amaranth and Brick surround and announce the content while grey’s temper the content as studied and direct.
#E22166
#BE1F41
#272727
#6E7070
#F7F8F9
Secondary Palette
Our secondary palette goes to the core of collegiate heritage. Bright, energetic and at home on any campus. Use these colors to personalize content to a specific campus or to call out special content.
#6CBBA8
#6BA575
#E3E070
#C7BC5E
#863F8E
#584194
#54A0CD
#0A4569
06 Typography
Set in IBM Plex, IBM’s open-source typeface, for a voice that’s technical, legible, and unmistakably IBM.
Aa
IBM Plex Sans Bold
Aa
IBM Plex Sans Regular
Aa
IBM Plex Sans Light
07 Pattern
The pattern system abstracts Kente weaving into a modular grid, echoing both textile heritage and the lattice structures of quantum circuits.
It scales from small digital accents to large-format signage, adding texture and identity without overwhelming content.
08 In Context
The identity applied across billboards, banners, print, apparel, and signage.
Mockups showing the system in the environments the Center’s students and partners move through every day.
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