So what is innovation? We came up with our own working definition: “Innovation is doing more with less so you can make something beautiful.” Using this as our starting point, we challenged ourselves to create an entire brand system out of as few elements as possible. The result? 1 shape (the curved rod or obround). 3 colors. And infinite variation. We call it radical expansive minimalism. A whole universe composed out of a single strain of DNA.

Key to our design is the obround—also known as the curved rod. We chose it for its distinctiveness and friendly yet scientific feel. From this one rod we are able build pictograms and entire scenes just by overlapping more rods at their endpoints (symbolizing connectivity and the overlapping of various ideas and technologies).

We were rigid in our restriction of the obround to only 5 different sizes and 3 colors, strictly preserving the ratio of the size of the individual obrounds used in each pictogram.

The brand was rolled out across dozens of touchpoints including a website, social media, event activations, custom on-site branding, animated shorts, print collateral, print advertising, and more.

NIE was a tremendous success with coverage in local media and over 8,000 students visiting the expo, representing 40 schools across the Emirates.

Engagement on social media was huge, especially considering UAE's small population and the niche target audience of Emirati students. Almost 30,000 likes, comments, and shares on Facebook. Over 100,000 likes, comments and video views on Instagram. In all, we reached 2.3 million people who were closely engaged with the brand.

NIE was intended to be a yearly expo only, but the event was so successful and the brand was so strong that UAE’s Ministry of Education asked us to create an umbrella brand derived from the NIE brand to encompass a large segment of their education initiatives, on which we’re working on now.