Scaling Trust

Scaling Trust is a lab researching how trust and technology are interconnected, with the aim of making academic and policy work in this space more accessible. As creative director, I led a small team to build a visual world that could carry the lab's mission beyond academic audiences. Trust is an abstract subject, so the challenge was to make it feel tangible and human without oversimplifying the research. The palette uses shades of blue commonly associated with both technology and trust, keeping the brand familiar to its audience. The character style grew out of the identity design, which centres on the idea of scaling and sharing, while the animations and supporting sounds are quick and contemporary, with smooth transitions. The system spans brand identity, website and UI, illustrations, animations, podcast and social media content, designed to stay flexible as the lab publishes new work.