The logo of the UdK Berlin includes a red square with white dots as a figurative mark, in which four letters appear on closer inspection: "hdkb." They date from the time when the UdK Berlin was still called HdK: "Hochschule der Künste Berlin".
The Hochschule der Künste was established on 30 September 1975 as a union of the then Hochschule für bildende Künste and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst. Before this happened, "the task of finding a signet had to be solved during the semester break, as the new official seal had to be available immediately." So it is reported in the second issue of "Information" of the HdK. Four professors, all of whom are still known today as designers, were asked for suggestions: Reinhart Braun (1926-2016), Helmut Lortz (1920-2007), Herbert W. Kapitzki (1925-2005) and Jürgen Spohn (1934-1992). The decision in favor of Lortz's design was made by the Presidium of the Hochschule der Künste, whose first president was the art historian Detlef M. Noack.
Helmut Lortz had studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin and was a lecturer at the Werkkunstschule in Darmstadt in the 1950s. In 1959 he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, where he - from 1975 than at the HdK - represented the field of applied and later experimental graphic art until 1986. In their handbook "Experimental Design" (Salenstein: niggli Verlag, 2015), his students Betina Müller and Armin Lindauer evaluated material from his teaching activities in the UdK archive, consisting of almost 500 'semester protocols' of the students.
During the HdK, the "Signet" was used in different colors: black, blue, and green. The size varied slightly. When the HdK became the UdK Berlin in 2001, the "square" had become so distinctive that it was retained. In connection with introducing a corporate design, Tina Bühling, class of Professor Michael Klar, designed the current logo. The square is combined in red with the lettering "Universität der Künste Berlin" and an underline. It was decided not to change the letter sequence.
As with every figurative mark, the possible use is manifold: In the UdK archive, it appears, among other things, as a cushion. It should not be concealed that occasionally the "sign for the blind" is also mentioned.