KAUST Innovation

The heart of Saudi’s deep tech ecosystem

KAUST Innovation

Contributions

Brand Identity, Brand Platform, Brand Architecture, Brand Voice, Launch, Motion Design

Industry

Education

A community of the brightest minds from around the world, brought together on the coast of the Red Sea. In cutting-edge labs, you’ll find scientists, students, startups, and the world’s most innovative companies working together to find answers to the future’s most urgent challenges. It's a deep tech ecosystem unlike anywhere else.

Now, as a key pillar of the Saudi 2030 Plan, is the moment for KAUST to be known far and wide, to tell its stories of innovation and technology to the Kingdom and the world, and to make real the impact it has been tasked with achieving.

BOND’s role was to create a new design system for the KAUST Innovation team, to work across everything they do, 100% a part of KAUST while providing space for KAUST Innovation’s team to work and achieve as they need to do.

We created a brand architecture to fit the needs of the whole as well as each individual element and activity within it. A system that can speak to many audiences—current and future faculty, government, corporates (global and local), global VC firms, students and those interested in entrepreneurship across KSA, startup founders across the world… and more. We started with the principle that every element should follow the KAUST Innovation identity unless it earns the right to be different.

The visual identity is tied together with the creative concept Chaos to Clarity. This represents the change KAUST Innovation brings to the world: many people working together, from initial research to concrete commercial, economic, and societal impact. The use of small particles is applied to abstract shapes, objects, illustrations, and typography treatments and implemented across static images and animations. The clarity and simplicity is felt in everything, from the clean, clear typefaces to the overall graphic system.

We believe the future of brand design lies not in static systems but in an always-on evolution. In a world when our digital products are in constant beta, our brand design systems must be likewise. Constantly stress-tested to meet new situations. We call this a Living Brand System.