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Dana Foundation

Expanding Understanding of How Neuroscience Intersects with Society

Since 1950, the Dana Foundation has been a pioneer in healthcare and neuroscience philanthropy, funding innovative research and new areas of inquiry. After two decades dedicating their mission to basic neuroscience funding research, Dana Foundation developed a new strategic plan in 2022. Centering on ideas of democratizing neuroscience and making the field more inclusive and representational of all of people, Dana would now pioneer the multi-faceted, intersectional field of Neuroscience & Society that they helped create. That’s when they asked Constructive to help transition their brand legacy into a new vision for impact—and help an emerging scientific field realize its full potential to build a better society for all people.

Research & Discovery

Identifying Diverse Audience Needs & Connecting Brand Value

To realize Dana Foundation’s ambitious vision for its new Neuroscience & Society strategy—and channel it through a new brand and website, we led a research and discovery phase to learn more about their history, programs, strategic plan, audiences, and more. First, stakeholder interviews helped inform how audiences inside and outside the organization viewed the Foundation and its future. We then conducted collaborative brand workshops to define the Foundation’s aspirations, values, and organizational roles; their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities; their strategic differentiators; and their audience relationships. We then applied what we learned through research to help Dana Foundation connect people within the neuroscience field and experts in other social disciplines—and, in doing so, occupy a special space for the global good.

Brand Strategy & Messaging

Articulating the Vision of Brain Science for a Better Future   

Our brand strategy identified nine core themes that were foundational to Dana Foundation’s credibility and ability to lead a new field of science it was establishing. Themes such as “Transcending the Sciences, “Advocacy vs Objectivity,” and “Neuroscience for People” connected Dana’s rich history and impact to its strategic direction. We then positioned the brand to realized the potential in exploring a new neuroscience that benefits all people. Dana Foundation’s new narrative is expressed with depth and detail through strategic brand messaging that articulates their purpose and mission, their vision for the future, the values that guide them, their differentiating value propositions, and their audience relationships. The resulting platform equips Dana’s team with a communications toolkit to engage their audience and invite a new generation into the field.

Visual Identity

Moving Forward with a Dynamic Visual Identity  

With verbal branding clearly articulating Dana Foundation’s purpose and vision, it was time to design a new visual identity to embody their commitment to establishing and growing the field of Neuroscience & Society. We explored different design with Dana’s team to create a logo and design system that expresses the brand’s dynamic energy, scientific sophistication, and creative exploration. Dana Foundation’s logo is a fluid loop that creates movement, intersects and interconnects; wave patterns provide texture for backgrounds while signifying brain activity; saturated colors and gradients represent the Foundation’s diverse and nuanced scientific inquiry, and typography is streamlined and objective, reflecting the evidence-based nature of their work.

Information Architecture & UX Design

Laying the Foundation for a New Frontier in Scientific Inquiry

The Dana Foundation’s strategic plan champions the spirit of open inquiry, collaborative research, and multidisciplinary to make neuroscience respond to and reflect the well-being of all people. To deliver on this ambitious vision online, we needed to create a website to engage audiences with the Foundation’s mission and a new way of thinking, and mobilize knowledge with resources to accelerate action at the intersection of Neuroscience & Society. Dana Foundation’s new website positions the brand at the forefront of a new field, elevates the transformative potential in their mission, and then invites scientific experts, potential grantees, students, the media and others to explore, participate, and help advance brain science for a better future.

Creating the New Global Home for Neuroscience & Society

It was now time to bring the brand to life online—translating the visual and verbal branding that are the foundation for how Dana Foundation shows up in the world into a website that engage, excite, and educate a diversity if audiences with their mission. We designed the online brand experience to embody the collaborative optimism in Dana Foundation’s mission—inviting audiences in with a vibrant, colorful, and future-facing aesthetic that connects the work of today with what’s possible tomorrow.

We designed the online brand experience to embody the collaborative optimism in Dana Foundation’s mission—inviting audiences in with a vibrant, colorful, and future-facing aesthetic that connects the work of today with what’s possible tomorrow.

Website Design

Introducing the Many Intersections of Neuroscience & Society

To establish an entirely new field of multidisciplinary science, both expert and lay audiences are likely to need education on both its purpose and potential. To make sure that everyone from elementary school students to social scientists could explore and engage with this new way of thinking about neuroscience, the Dana Foundation’s new website both introduces the ideas behind Neuroscience & Society, and connect it to broader society. From impact stories to a glossary of relevant terms, Dana Foundation’s website makes new concepts accessible and connects them to activity to advance the field around the world.

Resource Center

Expanding Access to Insights on What Neuroscience & Society Can Teach Us

Mobilizing knowledge—from grade school classrooms to boardrooms—is central to Dana Foundation’s work. To activate Dana Foundation’s Neuroscience & Society mission champion neuroscience exploration, and make participation more diverse and intergenerational, we developed an expansive digital knowledge library. Filled with resources and filterable by topic, audience, and resource type, Dana Foundation’s new website makes articles, infographics, curricular materials and more accessible to a range of audiences interested in exploring Neuroscience & Society.

Social Media Marketing

Engaging Audiences of All Kinds Across Social Platforms

Two core drivers in the Dana Foundation’s new mission of its new strategic direction are to expand access to the field of neuroscience and make it more diverse, and to ensure that neuroscience work is both informed by and responsive to all people in a diverse society. To ensure that the foundation’s reach extended beyond its new website, partner network, and events, to engage the broader public, we designed a multi-platform system of social media marketing assets. The suite of templates make space for Dana to attract interest with eye-opening insights, invite audiences into digital and live events, and share resources and opportunities.

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