DCU Innovate

DCU has a strong presence in the innovation space, with multiple offerings serving different audiences. Driven by the university's 'Transformation For An Unscripted Future' 5-year strategy, DCU came to us sensing an opportunity: to amplify their impact on Ireland's innovation ecosystem by bringing together their separate offerings under one strategic umbrella.

We kicked off with our 'Challenge & Change' workshop—bringing all stakeholders together to clarify intent, direction, and action. From there, we mapped the landscape, understanding where DCU Innovation fits within the sector, industry, and geography. Benchmarking competitors and identifying DCU's strategic direction of travel informed our brand thinking.

With strategy established, we brought it to life through naming, brand identity, and digital experience. We named the different units (The space, the enterprise, student elevator) under the umbrella, creating clarity and coherence across DCU's innovation offerings. The visual identity centres on a simple yet powerful device: the colon. A symbol of teeing up what's next, always looking to the future.

We introduced a bold, unifying colour palette to bring consistency across all activity, paired with a broad photography suite that focused on people—researchers, businesses, students—as the true instigators of innovation. To reduce costs, we blended new imagery with stock and an existing library. The new brand and digital platform positions DCU as a dynamic 'destination for innovation', creating ripples of positive impact across the university, industry, and society.