Background
“École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne”, “Swiss Federal Institute of Technology”, “EPF Lausanne”, “ETH Lausanne”: no other top-ranked university in the world has such an incoherent branding as the EPFL.
The main reasons are on one hand, that the EPFL is a French-based technology school and the meaning of the 4 letters needs to be translated and explained in most other language, leading to confusion.
On the other hand, the EPFL is a relatively young school in terms of organization and has never significantly invested in its coherent branding.
This page lays the foundation for an active communication to our media partners in order to bring more coherence into this matter
Four letters in the center
The guideline of the new corporate identity centers on the four main letters of the logo as a stand-alone brand (a philosophy that resembles the one of the MIT).
In accordance with this graphical guideline, the school must always be referred to by the four letters “EPFL” when mentioned in a written text, and ideally alone, without explanation.
“EPFL” is the primary and stand-alone name that refers to our school.
The explanatory line
The explanatory line “École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne” is there only to explain the signification and abbreviation of the four letters (comparable to “Massachusetts Institute of Technology”). However, due to the fact that Switzerland speaks multiple languages, a self-explanatory description of the abbreviation works only for French-speaking audiences.
The explanatory line must thus be used in the language of the audience. On top, it must be used right after the four letters “EPFL” and only when mentioning the school for the first time in a text.
When introducing the primary brand “EPFL” for the first time in a text it is followed by its explanatory line in the language of the targeted audience.
Examples in different languages
The following concrete guidelines apply to the usage of the stand-alone brand “EPFL” in written texts for the different languages :
- First choice : “EPFL” stand-alone
- For first-time readers : “EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne,…”
- Then always “EPFL”
- First choice : “EPFL” stand-alone
- For first-time readers : “EPFL, l’École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, …”
- Then always “EPFL”
- First choice : “EPFL” stand-alone
- For first-time readers : “ EPFL, die ETH Lausanne, …”
- Then always “EPFL”
- First choice : “EPFL” stand-alone
- For first-time readers : “EPFL, die Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Lausanne,…”
- Then always “EPFL”
- First choice : “EPFL” stand-alone
- For first-time readers : “EPFL, il Politecnico federale di Losanna, …”
- Then always “EPFL”
Summary
The school
- is referred to always by using the simple short letters “EPFL” alone ;
- is explained – if needed – only once and when mentioned the first time in a text ;
- is explained in the appropriate language of the audience.
After that, it is simply referred to as “EPFL”.