Brand refresh: Faculty

The role of brand design is to communicate the universal truths about an organisation - who they are, why they're here, and what they're good at.

As the Brand Design Lead, I was responsible for all aspects of Faculty's brand, originally delivered by Pentagram in 2019. After three years of rapid growth, we recognised the need to refresh Faculty's brand to better align with our new strategic objectives, convey our professional, friendly personality, and position Faculty as a trustworthy partner in safe, human-led AI technology.

I led the team of graphic designers, marketers, and developers tasked with refreshing Faculty's brand. This included developing a new colour palette, imagery, iconography, website, presentation templates, brand guidelines, brand management platform, and redesigning all marketing and sales collateral.

The major change to the previously black and white brand was the introduction of a vibrant colour palette. This adjustment was made to help Faculty stand out in a complex, competitive market.

Faculty's brand revolves around wisdom and intelligence at the speed of light. We chose light to be the focal element due to its unparalleled speed – nothing can surpass its ability to transfer information. Light feels premium, like our solutions, but also optimistic, which reflects our personality.

The new colours were inspired by the phenomenon of light refraction. When white light passes through a medium like a prism, it refracts, with each colour bending at a slightly different angle due to variations in wavelength. This dispersion creates a spectrum, showcasing the captivating interplay of science and art, resulting in white, black, blue, midnight blue, magenta, and yellow colours.

Colour palette:

Presentation template:

Iconography:

Website:

Office branding:

As part of the refresh, we hired a creative agency Motive to rebrand our new office. The objective was to ensure that the workspace conveys our brand personality and inspires our colleagues to think outside the box.

We used illuminated and translucent materials to reflect Faculty's commitment to openness, contrasting with traditional black-box solutions. The integration of LED lights elegantly guides people through the office space from the moment they step in, complemented by clever genAI and data visualisation art.