EPFL — Branding , campaign by twks: Even mascots have bad days

Services: Branding; Campaign
Industries: Engagement; Institutional; Sport & Santé

How EPFL turned mental health, a subject too often reduced to a leaflet, into a reassuring presence across the whole campus. Studying at one of the best schools in the world is a privilege. But a high level of demand also means high pressure, and nobody faces it on equal footing. Mental health has become a stated pillar at EPFL, carried by an entire platform and year-round programmes, with one key moment: Health Days and its talks. The brief wasn't just to announce another service. It called for branding that was serious without being cold, engaging without ever being lightweight.

A face rather than a leaflet

The hardest subject to bring up deserved the easiest character to approach. Talking about mental health at an engineering school usually hits the same wall: a clinical tone, austere posters, nobody to actually talk to. The platform does the opposite with a soft, round, expressive mascot who becomes the face of the whole programme. Not a logo to decode. A character to talk to.

A mascot allowed to have a bad day

It smiles, it doubts, it shuts down. Like everyone. Most institutional mascots stay locked in a permanent smile, which quickly rings false on a subject like this one. This one comes in several moods, from light to heavy, and owns it across the same materials as its brighter version. A quiet way of saying that ups and downs are part of the journey, without anyone having to say it out loud.

Colours that reassure

Pale blue and grey close the conversation before it starts. Here, the palette opens it. Mental health still too often wears the same clinical dullness, washed-out blues and institutional greys meant to feel calming and which, in practice, shut the subject down before it's even raised. EPFL does the opposite: a bold yellow for the mascot, a warm coral, an almost tangy mint green. A palette built to make you stop in front of a poster, not blend into the corridor. Every shade stays calibrated for accessibility, contrast checked, combinations weighed, so a wall of vibrant colour never excludes the people who need to read it. Here, colour becomes the first gesture of welcome, before anyone has to say a word.

One character, every format

A single face, rolled out into every corner of campus. Themed cards (Mental Health, Well-Being, Health at work, Jours santé), posters at building entrances, a life-size cutout stand at talks, a water bottle, a website, digital screens: the mascot turns up everywhere the school meets its students, from the corridor to the lecture hall.