IGNOU is an abbreviation, standing for the Indira Gandhi National Open University, one of the oldest and largest open universities in the world. IGNOU was established in New Delhi in 1985, and today has more than 4 million students from all over the globe.
IGNOU is the world’s largest open university. Founded in 1985, IGNOU was the first open university to offer distance learning. It offers various academic programs that lead to a certificate, diploma, or degree. More than four million students from India and 34 other countries attend the university.
Apart from traditional learning programs, IGNOU offers a two-year online MBA program accredited by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Distance Education Bureau (DEB). The IGNOU Online MBA program is a widely recognized online MBA program in India that focuses on competitive business and government tests.
Indira Gandhi National Open University is committed to quality teaching, research, training, and extension. The institution serves as a national resource center for expertise and infrastructure in ODL – Open and Distance Learning. As a global leader in distance education, IGNOU has been awarded the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Award, in Canada.
The university began by offering two academic programs in 1987: the Diploma in Management and the Diploma in Distance Learning, which enrolled 4,528 students. Today it serves the educational aspirations of over 3 million (!) students in India and other countries through its 21 training schools, a network of 67 regional centers, nearly 2 thousand student support centers, and over 20 foreign institutions.
The university offers some 200 certificates, diplomas, degrees, and doctoral programs. Courses are taught by some 250 faculty members and 230 specialists at headquarters and regional centers, as well as more than 35 thousand academic advisers from traditional institutions of higher education, professional organizations, and industry.
What is IGNOU?
IGNOU is the world’s largest open university, with more than 4 million students from all over the globe. The Indira Gandhi National Open University was established in New Delhi in 1985, and today has its doors open for people from dozens of countries across the world.
In terms of visual identity, IGNOU is less progressive than its educational programs. The university uses the badge, designed for it in 1985, and it shows the true values of IGNOU and its respect for its roots and heritage.
The IGNOU logo, which has been used by the university since the day of its opening, is composed of a very delicate and elegant emblem in sky-blue, and a three-leveled inscription with the abbreviation set in lowercase, and underlined by “The People’s University” tagline in the uppercase, but smaller size. The color of the emblem is supported by the color of the IGNOU lettering, which makes the badge very well-balanced and fresh.
The bold lowercase lettering from the primary badge of IGNOU is set in a simple and clean sans-serif font with traditional contours and straight cuts of the lines. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Arial Narrow OS Bold, or Helvetica Narrow Bold.
As for the color palette of the IGNOU visual identity, it is based on a combination of sky-blue and black, where the blue is a fresh, light shade, standing for freedom and an open mind, which are the main purposes of the university and its highest values, and black adds stability and professionalism to its characteristics.