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Graduation is the process of completing a certain course of education or curriculum, whereas in universities, academic achievements are distinguished by the bachelor's, master's, and the doctor's degree. Graduation ceremony is a formal event for the graduates, where they are obligated to wear the traditional and symbolic graduation robes. In other words, academic dress is a ceremonial dress that represents authority and formality.¹⁾

Academic dress is formally known as an academical clothing that contains hoods of many colors that each represent the different fields of education and that defines the authority and the ownership of knowledge through the distinguishing of the design and materials based on the different degrees of education. In content, academic dress contains the university's traditions and history, academic achievements, social status, and other responsibilities. Furthermore, academic dress metaphysically symbolizes the courage to preserve freedom of exploration and tolerating different opinions while keeping one's subjectivity.

Today, most of the academic dresses of the West and South Korea can be rooted back to the western attires of the Medieval period. Originally containing the meaning of religious authority and social respect for holy orders, these formal attires were later settled in universities as one of the virtues of the clergies.²⁾

An academic dress is composed of a gown, a hood, and a cap.

(1) Gown

Academic gowns can be easily distinguished by its sleeves. Gowns for the bachelor's degree contains pointed sleeves with closures such as zippers on the center and fine pleats under the shoulder yoke to give a sense of fullness and structure.

Academic gowns for the master's degree traditionally contains sleeves with arc-shaped front and oblong rear that hangs down to the knee; however, nowadays, master's gowns are starting to become more similar in shape to bachelor's gowns.

Most academic gowns for the bachelor's and the master's degrees are untrimmed. However, for the doctor's degree, panels of two long trimmings are placed on the center-front of the gown, and three stripes of velvet bars are applied across the sleeves. The colors of the bars and the hoods indicate the field of education to which the degree pertains, and the fields of education differ according to countries and schools.

Most academic gowns are black in color, but the colors can be changed within the allowable range.

[Fig. 2] Gown Types

(Source: http://www.herffjones.com)

(2) Hood

The hood is a draped piece of fabric that hangs down from the back of the neck. The hood is a very significant part of the academic dress because it represents different design elements such as the various types of degrees and subjects. As for the doctor's degree, details such as lines and trimming materials are applied variously on the colors of the hoods.

The total length of the hood for the bachelor's degree must be 3 feet, for the master's degree 3 1/2 feet, and for the doctor's degree, 4 feet with the binding of a velvet or a velveteen, 2 inches, 3 inches, 5 inches wide for the bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees, respectively. Hoods should indicate the university's color and the fields of education to which the degree pertains, and the colors are sometimes presented in a variety of ways in different sections of the hoods. Moreover, many different color codes from different associations are applied in the dress codes. For example, if there are 3-inches of maize-colored trimmings on the center of the hood of an academic dress, then the field of education to which the master's degree pertains is 'agriculture' .³⁾

[Table. 1]
Hood colors by different fields of education

Faculty	Color	Faculty	Color
Agriculture	Maize	Law	Purple
Liberal Arts	White	Library Science	Lemon
Literature		Information Management
Humanities		Medicine	Green
Commerce	Drab	Music	Pink
		Public Health	Salmon Pink
Accountancy		Nursing	Apricot
Business		Occupational Therapy	Slate (Rhodes) blue
Journalism	Crimson	Oratory	Silver Gray
Dentistry	Lilac	Speech
Economics	Copper	Broadcasting
Education	Light Blue	Pharmacy	Olive Green
Engineering	Orange	Philosophy	Dark Blue
Science (both Social and Natural)	Golden Yellow	Theology, Divinity	Scarlet
Social Work	Citron	Veterinary Science	Grey
Fine Arts	Brown	Physical Education	Sage Green
Architecture		Manual Therapy
Forestry	Russet	Physical Therapy
Environmental Studies		Public Administration	Peacock Blue
Sustainability		Public Policy
		Foreign Service

[Fig. 3] Hood Types

(Source:http://albrektson.dyndns.org/family/albrektson/AcademicDress.htm)

(3) Cap

As shown below on [Table. 2], there are many types of caps, but the 4-angled motarboard caps are the most common type of academic caps. Other than the 4-angled caps, there are also 6 and 8-angled caps and even bonnet-styled academic caps. The tassel that is attached on the center of the cap should indicate the color to which the degree pertains.

[Table. 2]
Cap Types

Academic Beefeaters	Academic Mortarboard	Academic Tam

Like many of the systems in Korean universities, most domestic academic dresses and caps are in accordance with the customs of America. Thus, the reality is that most academic dresses are recognized only as graduation uniforms instead of mediums that represent the identity of the country or the university, and this reality proves to us the need of developing academic dresses that represent our cultural mentality. While most of the domestic universities following American form of academic dresses, Sungkyunkwang University has distinguished itself from the other universities with its Korean traditional academic dress inspired from the traditional costumes of the Joseon Dynasty.⁴⁾

During the recent years, many universities have been putting much effort in reorganizing the schools' symbol marks. The prime example of this case is the remodified academic dress of Seoul National University, that has been modeled after Korean traditional scholars. The remodification of Seoul National University's academic dress symbolizes a cultural movement that emphasizes the reverting of the fundamentals of Korean universities to the spirits of traditional scholars as well as declaring of identities of each universities, acting significantly as an academic dress developed with an identity of a university.

School	Konkuk University
UI		Image
School	Kyunghee University
UI		Image
School	Keimyung University
UI		Image
School	Korea University
UI		Image
School	Sahmyook University
UI		Image
School	Seoul National University
UI		Image
School	Seoul Women's University
UI		Image
School	Sungkyungkwan University
UI		Image
School	Yonsei University
UI		Image
School	Chung-Ang University
UI		Image
School	Hanyang University
UI		Image

Academic dresses of foreign universities contain the basic elements similar to those of the domestic; however, addition of distinctive elements that identify the universities could be seen in various parts of the robes. For example, MIT and Southern Methodist University applied the school's color into the academic dress, whereas Stanford University directly identified the school's marks on the front panels of the robe. Moreover, the academic robes of National University of Mongolia contain hoods that contains half-moon-shaped trimmings inspired from the traditional costumes of the country, and other universities in countries such as England apply the country's color into the academic dresses.

School	MIT
UI		Image
School	National University of Singapore
UI		Image
School	Southern Methodist University
UI		Image
School	Staffordshire University
UI		Image
School	Stanford University
UI		Image

UI(University Identity), the combination of University and Identity, is a strategy that consistently presents the overall image of a university. Like CI(Company Identity: Integration of company images) projects that have been conducted by several industries, UI(University Identity: Integration of university images, hereafter UI) is emerging as an important part of university development. Thus, UI is the process of constructing the university's image as a whole and increasing the brand value. As corporate brands are important, universities are starting to pay more attention in building university brands.

As a result, UI can be seen as a strategy that corresponds an organization's ideology or business spirit to the true nature of a university's environmental adaptation activities or goal attainment projects in which uplifts the university images into a symbol understood by a group of related people. Thus, the replacement of UI is being implemented as one of universities' long-term development plans, and the main reason for the replacements exist in revolutionizing the cliched images through the establishment of UI.⁵⁾

The three main elements of CI are MI(Mind Identity: the program of restructuring the ideologies of a corporate), BI(Behavior Identity: the program that expresses the ideologies of a corporate as patterns of behavior), and VI(Visual Identity: the program that expresses the ideologies of a corporate visually).

UI, also, contains the elements of mind(MI: understanding of the philosophy and goals), behavior(BI: practicing of the vision and ideologies), and face(VI: symbolizing the vision and ideologies), in which the three elements form the characteristics of public images[Fig. 4].

[Fig.4] Properties of UI

First, MI is the process of setting directions for a university to take part in the society, referring to the school's educational philosophy and goals.

Second, BI is the process of setting future directions for a university's basic academic philosophies, fundamentals, and goals, and thus leading the related members into understanding the process and inducing them to participate in unified academic activities. Here, the related members refer to intimate personal relations, labor-management relations, senior-junior relations, relations from academic activities, and etc.

Third, VI is correctly presenting a unified visual image of a university's symbol marks or logo to achieve the academic philosophies and goals to those involved both internally and externally. Typically, visual elements influence a university's image at much higher rate than non-visual elements. Due to a higher understanding of the visual elements through the frequency of contacts such as visual sensing and feeling, the determination of an image is much superior when compared to the non-visual elements. Especially, impressions from non-visual elements last for a short period of time whereas visual elements have the properties of long-time impressions. Therefore, the systemization of identity is possible, and the contents of VI, MI, and BI are frequently applied as visual elements in an image-making strategy.

Thus, among the three elements, MI and BI may be factors that present the image of a university, but much time is required for it to be recognized by the public; on the other hand, presentation of images through VI is mostly effective since it consists primarily of visual elements.

The UI of Dankook University consists of the symbol mark, emblem, signature, logotype, character, and others that consistently identifies the academic philosophies and goals of Dankook University.

The identity designs used in this study is based upon the revised regulation of Dankook University, the 'Standard Guide of UI Design for Dankook University', enforced on April 6, 2007.⁶⁾

[Fig. 5] Dankook University UI 1

(4) Image Mark, Traditional Mark

Inspired by 'Yin Yang and the Five Elements of the Universe', the image mark is composed of five colors, yellow(黃), blue(靑), white(白), red(赤), and black(黑), which represent the role and the vision of Dankook University.

[Fig. 6] Dankook University UI 2

Design marketing is gaining much attention worldwide in corporate, academics, and in all aspects of the society. The core of design marketing is 'branding'. Thus, the world's leading companies are starting to include CDO(Chief Design Officer) along with the CEO(Chief Executive Officer) and the CFO(Chief Financial Officer), risking to increase the power of the brand. The words 'design marketing' and 'brand power' are mistaken to be used only in the industrial markets; however, universities confined in the ivory tower are also aware of the importance of brand power. In other words, educational foundations are starting to establish strategies that are as powerful as the industries'. The primary reason for why each universities are rapidly focusing on design marketing is because of the strong influence it has on the images and the competitiveness of the brand as well as the consumers and the faculties of education. Like this, integration of university images(UI·University Identity) is acting as the backbone of design marketing. By consolidating the school's insignia, logo, slogan, etc., the symbol is intended to modify the University's brand image that is suitable to the modern trend. As universities worldwide are becoming a brand of their own, Dankook University has also managed to keep their overall image with a differentiated identity from the other universities.

One of the components of the UI, the VI is the most effective in conveying visual images and costumes, in particular, which have been used historically as powerful tools of symbol and identity. Academic dress, especially, can be utilized as a medium of presenting the university's image, the authority of degrees, and the traditions of the university. Therefore, the development of creative academic dresses that contain the identities and traditions of universities can be seen as an effort in adapting to the 21st century of globalization.

The academic dress designs for this research were focused on two aspects―identity and function.

First, in terms of identity, the UI of Dankook University was strongly applied to the designs in order to emphasize the originality of the school in comparison to its outdated, basic academic dress of the past. Thus, the aim of the design is to inspire the graduating students of Dankook University in gaining academic pride and expressing the identity and the tradition of the university.

Visual elements such as the school colors, logotype, identity mark, etc., were applied as important elements of the academic dress that can represent the school's image, allowing students to gain pride of their own school.

As for the functional aspect, the academic dresses were designed to be worn for the four seasons and created with wrinkle-free poly, acetate, and velvet materials that are conveniently manageable for the consumers.

The colors were applied within the UI Design Standard Manual of Dankook University.