The Swiss education landscape is crowded, filled with institutions speaking the same familiar language: practical, accredited, safe. In a culture that values modesty and understatement, these messages tend to blend together. For younger audiences, it all feels… pretty irrelevant, sometimes even a bit outdated.

For AKAD, it was crucial to reach Gen Z and young Millennials – people juggling jobs, relationships, identity, and the ever-looming “What comes next?” question. Many feel restricted by traditional education paths, worried about choosing a future that feels too small or too limiting.

AKAD needed to understand how this audience perceives the brand. The goal: meet young professionals exactly where life happens – on the street, at home, in their feed. AKAD shouldn’t feel like just another education provider, but like the rule-breaker in a category that rarely breaks rules.

For this young audience, “trustworthy” doesn’t automatically mean “boring.” To capture attention, AKAD needed to align the brand with lifestyle and ambition. We focused on a mindset we saw again and again: education decisions are ways of breaking out of a pre-drawn life path.

We positioned AKAD in a new, untapped brand space where flexibility becomes the new premium. The brand territories were intentionally bold, hedonistic, and uncompromising—rooted in the real lives of our young audience and the “Brat” culture, which prefers breaking expectations over fulfilling them.

In a category defined by restraint and tradition, AKAD chose to show student life as it actually is: chaotic, funny, intense, and full of energy.

Instead of perfection, we leaned into personality. Instead of pretending education is a flawless idyll, we highlighted the real – and often exhausting – mix of learning and life.

The result is anything but trivial. It’s culturally relevant. And it works. The campaign drove attention, organic engagement, and meaningful resonance with exactly the audience we wanted. Not because it was loud, but because it was honest.

This creative platform became AKAD’s rallying call—and a clear signal that the brand is stepping away from classic education clichés.

We developed a high-contrast look built on a raw black-and-white foundation, illuminated by “Neon Matcha.” The design needed to feel street-approved and stand out sharply against the grey tones of the commuter routine.

In tone and messaging, we transformed academic acronyms into playful “Bold Codes” – inspired by gaming and tech culture – to position AKAD’s programs as future-forward and full of energy:

• HF (Höhere Fachschule) → High Future
• BMS (Berufsmaturitätsschule) → Boss Mode Start

We created an “Anti School” world for the campaign, centered on learning on your own terms. Flash photography, underground zine references, and wild-posting aesthetics helped portray the campaign’s protagonists as “career rebels” – people who don’t wait for permission to carve their own path.

The campaign ran across DOOH and social (TikTok and Instagram), precisely where the audience seeks inspiration, not instructions.

R.O.A.D. is designed to digitize and safeguard one of the world’s largest archives of records from the transatlantic slave trade, many of which have never been publicly accessible. Alongside this monumental archival effort, the program will establish the Barbados Heritage District, which will encompass an Ancestral Memorial to the Enslaved, a National Performing Arts Centre, a global Genealogical Research Institute, and a National Museum dedicated to accurately recounting the historic and contemporary impact of slavery and forced migration on Barbados. Together, it will create space for education, cultural celebration, and global conversation.

We were brought in to help build a brand strategy, visual identity, and digital experience that could carry the weight of history while inviting participation in the future.

Since establishing a regional hub in Barbados in 2023, our agency has been committed to creating economic opportunities and fostering local talent in the Caribbean. And as a certified B Corporation, the chance to co-create a platform that honors past generations past and empowers those to come is the kind of impact-driven work that sits at the heart of our mission.

To build a brand strategy and visual identity that lived up to the R.O.A.D. Programme’s ambition, we had to start at the intersection of history and possibility.

At its core, R.O.A.D. is about uncovering, preserving, and sharing truths with the world. But it’s also about agency, empowering Barbadians to reclaim their story and radiate it outward as a source of cultural pride and economic momentum. With these factors in mind, we formed a strategy around a simple but powerful framework:

• Interrogate the past with honesty, transparency, and respect.
• Inform the present through education, design, and storytelling.
• Ignite the future by turning heritage into a catalyst for creativity, opportunity, and change.

At the heart of the identity is the African Sankofa symbol, which represents the concept of looking back and learning from the past in order to move forward and create a better future. We reimagined the symbol through a Caribbean lens, using the spiral as our guiding shape.

It symbolizes the past feeding into the present, and the present unlocking the future. Its circular form also reflects Barbados itself, positioned at the center of the Atlantic, sending ripples of history, resilience, and hope across the globe.

To complement the visual identity, we designed and developed the R.O.A.D. MVP website: the central platform introducing the initiative to the world. Built to inspire and inform, the site balances reverence and optimism, bringing R.O.A.D.’s purpose to life through clear storytelling and an emotionally resonant user experience.

The site applies the full brand system and is designed to scale with the program. It lays the technical and narrative scaffolding for future digital experiences, such as Digital Reflections, where users can share and explore stories tied to the site, and a kids’ experience that’s designed to educate and engage younger audiences through interactive cultural exploration.

More than a launchpad, the MVP website is designed to be a platform for empowerment. It’s a digital space that can be taken on and evolved by the people of Barbados. It creates the foundation for a locally-driven creative and digital ecosystem, where new ideas, stories, and innovations can flourish. Built with flexibility, accessibility, and future expansion in mind, the site ensures R.O.A.D. is maintained in memory and propelled forward through local ownership, participation, and innovation.

ARtefact Adventures: Barbados is a pivotal component of the R.O.A.D program that seeks to create an enriching experience specifically targeted to children. The mobile game invites kids to explore the unique culture, natural habitat, and history of Barbados through augmented reality, puzzles, and character interactions.

Through the adventures of Keisha and Justin, two passionate young Barbadians, players embark on a quest to discover artefacts that represent the essence of Barbados. By focusing on the island’s rich heritage, the game aims to instill a sense of pride and identity in Barbadian children, while also teaching children worldwide about the island’s cultural legacy.

The game integrates educational content with interactive gameplay to foster a deep connection between young Barbadians and their heritage, ensuring the stories and traditions of their ancestors are preserved and celebrated. At the same time, it empowers the next generation to carry forward these narratives, encouraging them to envision a future where their cultural identity plays a central role in global conversations.

ARtefact Adventures: Barbados extends its educational reach, giving kids and families around the world the opportunity to explore the island’s history. Through global engagement, the game helps promote culture exchange and understanding, allowing players to appreciate the uniqueness of Barbadian traditions while recognizing universal themes of resilience, creativity, and community.

Through the R.O.A.D Programme, ARtefact Adventures: Barbados serves as a digital bridge, connecting the past with the present and inspiring children to contribute to a culturally rich future.

This isn’t just a government initiative, but a national consciousness in motion. The visual identity and digital platform we helped to create were both designed to evolve alongside it, adaptable enough to live across memorials, educational spaces, performances, policy platforms, and community conversations for years to come.

The ARTefact Adventures: Barbados game is set to launch in early 2026.

Today, most banking innovation typically builds off of existing systems, either making legacy platforms slightly more user-friendly or adding modern features to legacy architecture.

However, the problem with these existing platforms is that they are technical, text-heavy, and assume a level of financial sophistication that most adults don’t even possess. For a generation raised on Instagram and TikTok, these interfaces feel like using a calculator to edit photos.

Rather than building on top of existing banking infrastructure, BUUT needed to create something new: An experience built from the ground up to meet the actual needs of today’s families.

As we quickly learned, every family handles money differently, and those differences become magnified in the digital realm.

Conversations with real-life Dutch families informed every step of our design process. It was thanks to the input of these teens and parents that we uncovered the following key realizations, each of which challenged many assumptions about how money works in modern households.

• Teenagers aren’t financially irresponsible. They’re financially invisible. Most teens we interviewed were trying to be thoughtful about spending, but they lacked tools to make that financial thinking clear to themselves or their parents. As a result, even if a teenager had a loose idea for a savings plan, most parents remained skeptical of their child’s sense of financial responsibility.
• Parents want to help, but they don’t know how. Many parents felt completely out of their depth when it came to digital money management. They remembered learning about money through physical handling—counting coins, seeing bills disappear, and feeling the weight of their wallet. They wanted to pass on financial wisdom but didn’t know how to translate analog lessons to digital reality.
• Visual thinking trumps numerical analysis. When we asked teenagers to describe their ideal money management tool, they didn’t talk about spreadsheets or transaction logs. They drew pictures. They wanted to see their money, not just track it

These insights helped us finalize our vision for BUUT as not just a banking app, but a financial education platform that happens to include banking features.

The heart of BUUT is the “potjes” system, virtual pots that make budgeting visual and intuitive. Teenagers can create “spaarpotjes” (savings pots) for goals they’re working towards and “betaalpotjes” (spending pots) for regular expenses.

But this isn’t just digital envelope budgeting. Each pot is visually distinct, with custom colors and names that reflect the teenager’s personality and goals. Want to save for concert tickets? Create a music-themed pot and watch it grow. Need to budget for lunch money? Set up a weekly spending pot with automatic refills.

The genius of the system: It makes abstract financial concepts concrete without requiring advanced math or planning skills.

One of our biggest insights was that most family financial conflicts stem from unclear expectations rather than irresponsible spending. Parents and teenagers often have completely different assumptions about what money can be spent on and when.

BUUT’s Agreements feature transforms these nebulous expectations into clear, mutual understandings. Using Agreements, teenagers and their parents can work together to make arrangements for how much pocket money or clothing allowance they’ll get and when. If the teen feels as though they have a valid reason for the Agreement to be adjusted, they can raise the issue with a parent in person and ask them to modify it in the app.

The emphasis on collaboration demonstrates how Agreements function as learning frameworks, not punitive controls.

Parents get enough visibility into their teenager’s financial activity to feel at ease without feeling like they’re invading their privacy. 

BUUT provides them with an overview of their child’s pots and how much money is in them. Should they feel the need, they can look inside a pot to see how their child is spending the allocated money. Additionally, if they want, parents can choose to be informed of important milestones—like creating new pots or reaching savings goals—via notifications or messages. 

In short, BUUT is designed to make parents feel comfortable enough to let their child “learn by doing.” While parents can set up what they consider a safe environment for their child (i.e. by setting transaction limits or restricting certain payment methods), the app also gives them the tools and tips they need to decide what fits well within their parenting style and relationship with their child.

BUUT comes with built-in advice and benchmarks for parents, to help ensure that they’re setting their children up for success with appropriate allowances and limitations. 

For teens, BUUT provides helpful financial insights and age-relevant tips in the feed on their dashboard. 

Looking ahead, the goal is to embed more personalized guidance for teenage users based on their actual spending patterns and savings goals, as opposed to generic financial literacy content.

While our main focus on this project was on designing the entire digital experience of the app, we were also proud to play a role in helping introduce BUUT to the world by creating a modular, playful website packed with articles, videos, and interactive elements—carrying the eclectic BUUT style across every touchpoint.

Within 24 hours of release, BUUT reached #3 in the App Store’s Finance category, beating established competitors and landing just behind Revolut and Tikkie. Pretty exciting for a completely new product targeting a specific age demographic.

BUUT’s launch exceeded every expectation, but the real measure of success came from user feedback and behavioral data showing that teenagers were actually engaging with financial planning tools. Something that traditional financial education has never quite managed to achieve.

The contemporary cycling market is loud, crowded, and increasingly homogeneous. Everyone’s chasing the same aesthetic, the same language, the same vision of a pedal-driven future.

Raleigh had a choice between chasing the same trends as everyone else and rebranding itself into something completely unrecognizable, or, conversely, doubling down on its heritage and risk looking as though its eye was more on the past than the future. 

However, we refused to accept the idea that Raleigh’s heritage and its present were mutually exclusive. For us, the question wasn’t about the decision to pursue one or the other, but rather about how to make that history relevant right now.

Working in close collaboration with Raleigh, we sought to uncover an identity that would move their brand forward while staying true to the DNA that had propelled them.

As a heritage cycling brand, Raleigh isn’t about the past or the future. It’s about the experience of moving through a city on two wheels; the feeling of living authentically in the present. 

In this way, we realized that Raleigh is a brand that chooses its own path.

That philosophy informed every aspect of Raleigh’s transformation. The visual identity we created blends the old and the new seamlessly, with a style we called “modern heritage.”
 
We modernized the logo, bringing the iconic heron (a detail many brands would have quietly retired) back to prominence. The color palette nods to history but pops on screen. Typography and visual language convey personality and boldness without abandoning recognizability.

The final result feels familiar, but not dusty. It’s fresh, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard.

The centerpiece of the campaign that would debut Raleigh’s refreshed identity was the Raleigh ONE e-bike. This new product perfectly encapsulated a brand inspired by legacy and deeply connected to the present.

For the launch of the Raleigh ONE, we worked with a talented team of external folks that we chose based on their ability to embrace the “now” through their understanding of the current culture.

• Our photographer, Cas Kerssens, shot the campaign by drawing his unique style, which combines motion techniques, dynamic framing, and strong narratives to create work that feels both cinematic and grounded.
• Our director,  Kelvin Jones, applied his raw, emotional visual style to create a film that positioned the e-bike as something more than just a solution to an imaginary problem.

The final result follows the Raleigh ONE as it moves through neighborhoods, styles, cultures, and eras, treating the city itself as a dynamic canvas and the bike as a participant in vibrant urban life.

This isn’t just a logo refresh with a few style guides. It’s a complete brand system that extends the “present tense” positioning across all aspects of the brand, including how it looks, how it talks, and (of course) how it moves. 

By building this identity to scale while keeping it rooted firmly in specificity, we helped Raleigh position itself powerfully and consistently across every channel.

For a brand that’s been around for 138 years, it’s a refresh that feels as distinctive as it feels honest. Not looking back. Not trying to predict the future. Just moving forward with character, confidence, and a clear sense of self.

From the beginning of our work, we understood that while this was precisely the kind of impact-driven work that aligns with our mission as a B Corp, good intentions wouldn’t be enough. Authentic cultural representation demands deep collaboration, not external interpretation.

To that end, we embedded ourselves within the Nyiyaparli community’s process. We worked hand in hand with the NLLP Cultural Working Group, senior language speakers, Nyiyaparli Rangers, and community members through multiple cultural workshops to ensure our approach was genuine.

Our game design choices reflected this collaboration and everything we learned from it.

Nyiyaparli Widi transforms players into “junior rangers,” collecting unique cultural items and learning everyday Nyiyaparli words through immersive gameplay. Players earn Paathupaathu! (“Respect!”) points as they progress, unlocking new levels and cultural challenges.

Key features include:

• Discovering and collecting authentic cultural artifacts
• Learning language through contextual, in-game interactions
• Exploring real cultural locations in Nyiyaparli Country
• Unlocking culturally relevant power-ups and tools
• Competing for high scores while building cultural knowledge
• Replay mechanics that reveal hidden cultural treasures

At the heart of the gaming experience is how these features come together to serve the larger cultural mission. 

During play, the game teaches new phrases and vocabulary in a way that sticks. However, at a much broader level, the game also helps inspire young people (and adults) to develop a connection to place, culture, and community.

Nyiyaparli Widi is simultaneously an educational tool and a celebration of a vibrant language and culture. Above all else, however, it represents a cultural lifeline. 

For Nyiyaparli children, it offers a pathway to connect with their cultural heritage in a format that speaks to their digital-native upbringing. For the broader community, it ensures that precious cultural knowledge doesn’t disappear with the passing of elders.

It demonstrates how technology can serve indigenous communities when the process is truly collaborative. By centering community voices and cultural protocols throughout development, we created something that belongs to the Nyiyaparli people—not something made about them.

Every time someone plays Nyiyaparli Widi, whether indigenous or non-indigenous, they are contributing to vital preservation efforts to keep the Nyiyaparli language alive forever.

Arm’s role in AI is pervasive, spanning industries, devices, and geographies through an ecosystem of 742 partners across 28 categories. This presented a unique opportunity to create a unique, premium visual expression that clearly positioned the brand as an enabling force ushering the world into the next era of AI.

DEPT® led the development of a bold new visual identity to match this ambition. Working closely with Arm’s C-suite, in-house creatives, and partner agencies, we designed a global design system that could flex seamlessly across touchpoints, from executive keynotes and brand campaigns to event activations and product launches.

Central to the identity is the Horizon Arc, a mnemonic graphic device that represents the drive to push boundaries and build a brighter future. This new direction embodies a minimalist, elegant, and modern design language where every detail is intentional—from color and gradients to typography, iconography, and layout. 

The creative direction confidently visualizes the future: a premium, distinctive aesthetic that reinforces leadership across sectors from automotive to infrastructure. At every step, we focused on building a system that balances consistency with adaptability, ensuring Arm can show up with authority and clarity in every market it touches.

The impact of the new brand direction is already clear. In just one year, Arm’s brand value has increased nearly fivefold—from €223 million in 2023 to €1.1 billion in 2024—earning recognition as the fastest-growing European brand. The new visual identity is now spearheading a global brand campaign, positioning Arm at the forefront of the AI conversation.

Since launching the identity at CES, Arm has announced major milestones that align with its elevated brand presence, including becoming a main sponsor of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team and preparing to launch its first AI-focused chips in 2025.

At DEPT®, we believe pioneering creativity drives lasting business impact. This collaboration with Arm demonstrates how strategic, design-led thinking can unlock a brand’s full potential and help transformative companies communicate with clarity, confidence, and global resonance.

JBL had the scale and the spend. Its Amazon DSP campaigns were well-established and reached broad audiences. 

But they hit a common barrier: ad fatigue. Too many impressions to the same users were diluting effectiveness and burning the budget. The mission was to identify the optimal ad frequency that maximized performance without alienating potential buyers. Less repetition, but more relevance.

We worked inside the ultimate data clean room (AMC) to extract high-value insights and rebuild JBL’s media strategy from the ground up.

Here’s what we did:

• Mapped frequency sweet spots: We analyzed 90 days of campaign data at the event level to identify the exact moment when metrics such as ROAS and DPVR peaked, and where they began to drop.
• Created a frequency audience: Once we knew the optimal impression cap, we built a custom audience of users who had already hit it and excluded them from future campaigns.
• Reallocated budget with precision: We redirected spend toward fresher, high-intent users who hadn’t yet been saturated, ensuring every ad impression was working harder.

We dug into Aithyra’s subject of study through the strategic positioning process. And this insight inspired the creation of a multi-layered, intelligent identity that works as more than a signifier. 2D and 3D explorations that embody a unique blend of technology, life science, and innovation encapsulate what Aithyra stands for. 

The logotype’s rounded character forms, gentle movement, and organic shift in the crossbars of the As all carry a naturalistic edge. Motion is composed of Elementaries – crafted elements that embrace the paradox essential to Aithyra’s work: organic computation. Through fluid, dynamic transformation, they create forms and integrate into existing ones.

This identity system can interpret, evolve, and scale up. It’s less about limitations and more about limitlessness. Versatility and constant innovation are the signature of Aithyra’s identity. This is a design language that is never static – a characterful, engaging system. And the custom tool we developed for the Aithyra team enables them to play with the elements and generate new design work far into the future.

We set out to define a new approach to brand and product storytelling, interrogating existing site and categorical pain points, brand USPs, and consumer benefits. 

A deep understanding of existing headwinds and tailwinds helped us define a vision for the site that transitioned it from a traditional e-commerce experience to a resource for those seeking to elevate their performance and unlock what’s next—less about selling a product, and more about building brand momentum and excitement for what WHOOP enables. 

WHOOP originally built a following among elite athletes and professionals, but as it moved into its next chapter, it wanted to open the aperture of who was invited in — a pursuit reflected in the new site experience. 

We evolved the existing WHOOP audience to more granularly capture nuanced mindsets, behaviors, touchpoints, and points of tension, ultimately landing on three core audience segments against which to build the experience. We audited where the site fell short in addressing these new segments and identified areas of opportunity to tailor the experience accordingly.

We took our newly crafted audience segments and built comprehensive journey maps, pinpointing high-value moments for content and feature concepting. In tandem, the team explored several territories for the site’s new visual identity and aesthetic. This served as the basis for the overall design language and system.

Given the complexity of the product and the existing confusion around what WHOOP was, we needed to overhaul the existing information architecture. We created a new site map and conducted a comprehensive content strategy and mapping exercise for each page, identifying where new pages were required. 

We paired the newly minted visual identity with our content outlines to bring each new page to life. Motion was a major component of the new experience as well, and we used mechanisms like progressive disclosure to help audiences dig deeper without being overwhelmed with information. 

With a compelling new visual identity in tow, we developed a flexible design system that enabled us to integrate the data-forward storytelling of WHOOP with its new look. The system created intrigue around the product, connecting emotionally on subjective preferences like band-color, and functionally on utility preferences like feature sets.

We leveraged UX tactics like progressive disclosure to allow for moments of deeper discovery, all while reducing the amount of overwhelming data and information found on each page.

To ensure we moved ahead in a way that made sense to WHOOP audiences, we conducted a series of user tests to gain qualitative feedback and real user insights. We built over 10 comprehensive, fully functional prototypes that showcased different features and flows on-site, allowing users to envision the live experience. Learnings from testing allowed us to hone in on areas to both sharpen and build upon.

To fully realize the ambitious vision for the website, significant development work was required. The team implemented a Next.js front-end with Contentful CMS. To support WHOOP’s global reach, a custom localization architecture was built using Contentful locales and the new Next.js app router. This was a large-scale Contentful application utilizing the latest features. 

To achieve the desired level of customization and flexibility, the team developed a fully modular system. This allowed every piece of the site to be customizable and reusable, with all content managed through Contentful. This modular approach not only streamlined the development process but also empowered the WHOOP team to easily maintain and update the site going forward.

Blue Apron needed to expand beyond its core media channels to grow efficiently. Rising costs and limited targeting options made it harder to find new customers at scale. The team wasn’t just looking for more reach, but better reach. Plus, higher-intent audiences, stronger engagement, and overall smarter media spend.

Amazon DSP offered an opportunity forward: access to exclusive first-party data (1PD), premium placements across Amazon-owned properties, and new tools like Performance+ designed to prioritize quality traffic over clicks. Alongside DEPT®, Blue Apron’s first major initiative on Amazon DSP was the ultimate opportunity to reach new audiences—in places where people were already shopping, streaming, or browsing with intent—while testing and optimizing on the platform. 

DEPT® worked with Blue Apron to develop a media strategy that fully leaned into what made Amazon DSP different, and the first step was audience targeting. Instead of broad demographics, DEPT® used Amazon’s shopping and behavioral signals to find customers who already showed signs of being a fit. 

Every audience was selected based on relevance, not guesswork. For example,

• Whole Foods shoppers who bought frozen, healthy meals were deeply aligned with Blue Apron’s offerings and primed for conversion.
• In-market audiences browsing meal prep tools indicated interest in home cooking, cost savings, and efficiency. 
• Lifestyle audiences that demonstrated behaviors prioritizing wellness, sustainability, and premium food options matched the Blue Apron ethos. 

Blue Apron’s ad placement strategy was just as intentional. Ads showed up on Amazon.com when customers were actively shopping, on IMDb during entertainment browsing sessions, and on Twitch, connecting with a younger, tech-savvy crowd. Wherever the audience’s attention naturally went, Blue Apron was there with relevant and emotionally resonant messaging that evoked the joy of cooking (without having to grocery shop).

To drive further real business results, DEPT® and Blue Apron activated Amazon’s Performance+ beta. Launched in 2024, the tool is designed for non-endemic advertisers using Amazon DSP to harness 1PD and machine learning to automate and optimize campaigns toward a specific goal. 

Performance+ gave the team a new lever to move beyond basic click metrics and optimize campaigns toward Quality Site Visitors (QSVs), or users who stayed on-site long enough to show real interest. This helped Blue Apron focus its media spend on audiences that mattered most.

Throughout the campaign, flexibility was key. DEPT® built the strategy as a living framework, adjusting audiences, creative formats, and real-time placements based on performance. Insights from Amazon DSP reporting and Campaign Manager gave the team the visibility needed to optimize quickly and stay locked onto the KPIs that mattered: Quality site visits, sign-ups, and lower cost per registration.