HAL & CCSD - Center for Direct Scientific Communication, Serving open science

“Science is a common good that we must share as widely as possible”, were the words of Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, introducing the National Plan for Open Science in 2018.

Created by the CNRS in 2000, the CCSD – Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe serves the research community. Its mission is to archive and disseminate knowledge for the advancement of science.  It creates, develops and administers the HAL open archive, the SciencesConf conference management platform and the Episciences open-access journal management platform.

The CCSD has its origins in the culture of teaching, research and science in the broadest sense. Its history is closely linked to the emergence of the Internet and the culture of open science. HAL can be considered to be to the web what the encyclopedia is to the printing press: a first-rate vehicle for scientific progress.

It is a gateway for knowledge, following in the footsteps of the great library of Alexandria, the first medieval universities where the liberal arts were taught, and the emergence of the printing press, which enabled the dissemination of knowledge and led to the Renaissance. The center is part of this great history, and today contributes its stone to the formidable edifice that is Science, always with the same goal in mind: to advance it, to better understand and improve the world around us.

Graphéine brought our expertise to the project, helping the CCSD to redesign its brand architecture. While sharing, openness and accessibility are at the heart of the CSSD’s missions, its previous identity did not reflect this. We needed to work on a coherent and meaningful architecture, to affirm today’s values and showcase those of tomorrow.

CCSD at the service of its 3 brands

The CCSD logotype plays its role as “mother brand”. It gives rise to three geometric signs, symbols of universality and accessibility, which characterize the three “daughter brands”.

HAL’s sharing of international knowledge is represented by a circle, a universal and planetary shape. In the same way, EPISciences is represented by a clear-cut geometry, representing the validated article: the square. SciencesCONF is represented by the polygon of the conference, space, meeting and sharing.

The idea of diffusion

Each sign is created and designed with movement in mind, representing the different stages and missions of the brands.

HAL

1. Dépôt de la connaissance.
2. Centralisateur de la connaissance internationale.
3. Diffuseur de connaissances.

EPI Sciences

1. Dépôt de la revue.
2. “Sur-couche” apportée par les relecteurs.
3. Revue publiée et accessible.

Sciences CONF

1. Diffusion et partage de la connaissance.
2. Aide à l’organisation d’une conférence.

Unlimited knowledge

The graphic universe takes up the logic of moving lines, with the notion of dissemination always at the heart of the message. Science (from the Latin scientia, “knowledge”) is in its original sense “the sum of knowledge“, as a systematic undertaking to construct and organize knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions.

Here, the graphic choice evokes the technical and ideological universe of science as a whole: inclusive and in perpetual motion. While the theses and other research documents on the platform are highly specialized, the graphic universe echoes scientific technicality and precision. Like multiple sources gathered together within a research document, the fine lines come together to draw a shape more or less evocative of a particular scientific sector. Thanks to the creation of a library of shapes, the system becomes common to all CCSD brands, with brand architecture using color as a distinctive element.

Color architecture

With a view to disseminating knowledge and distinguishing the three platforms, we have devised the following color scheme. CSSD blue is the common color, ensuring consistency. Following the concept used in the logotypes, this blue gradates towards the identity color of each platform.

Each step of the gradient is proportionately located between the arrival and departure colors. The signs thus represent the journey and effervescence between the blue (CCSD) and the colors of each daughter brand.