Watch it flex: a nimble, adaptable symbol system steers Zeus Jones’ identity for Dimensional Energy

Dimensional Energy is addressing climate change by transforming carbon dioxide into sustainable products like aviation fuel and surf wax. Their goal is to help companies reduce global emissions by 11% by 2050, a challenging mission in a new category filled with unproven technology. As they scale their tech, they partnered with Zeus Jones to refine their brand strategy, positioning, and identity. Harnessing the company’s future-focused approach, the Minneapolis-based creative consultancy delivered a comprehensive identity that includes a new mission, vision, logo, visual brand language, website, and investor presentation. In this challenging new sector, the primary aim of the identity was to communicate their innovative technology in an approachable manner that could bridge the gap between the scientific community and the general public, as well as potential investors.

“For the logo, we kept coming back to this idea of transformation and phase change that’s at the heart of Dimensional’s work,” explains Designer Alex Register. “We tried a few approaches that were a bit more complex but ultimately landed on a simple, symmetrical mark that doubles as a monogram.” Sitting underneath the logo – a ‘D’ and ‘E’, joined at the back – the wordmark can flex to include various industries or products, and is “set in a slightly modified version of Roobert,” he notes.

Complementing these motifs, a shape-based symbol system forms a significant part of the visual identity, whereby the shapes, each assigned a loose meaning, can be combined like sentences to convey different aspects of Dimensional’s mission, technology, and impact. “So much of the work that Dimensional Energy is doing happens at an elemental scale, and we wanted to be able to visually articulate that process into the identity system with the idea of building blocks,” adds Designer Gordon McIntyre-Lee. In its entirety, this system allows for varying degrees of complexity in communication according to the audience.

The typography utilises Neue Machina, chosen for its geometric and manufactured qualities that align with the brand’s ethos, and Roobert, which offers a harder-working character for body copy and subheads.

In an evolution of their pre-existing orange and blue, the reimagined colour palette, featuring a more vibrant orangey-red and light blue, symbolises transformation – “from hot to cold, fossil-fuels to circular-carbon,” McIntyre-Lee suggests. From there, Zeus Jones devised a complementary palette to convey other brand aspects such as humanity, environmental justice, and ecological restoration. “A key consideration across the entire identity was the need to function well across both industrial and consumer-facing applications,” says McIntyre-Lee. “The high-chroma core colours help in those industrial applications, while the broader palette gives some flexibility to be more nuanced when appropriate.”

“Even though their science and technology is complex,” Register notes, reflecting on the project, “the story we tell about it doesn’t always need to be. Creating a series of composable brand assets allowed us to push the level of complexity up or down accordingly.” This gives Dimensional Energy a lot of control – brand shapes or photography can be used to portray the technology abstractly. Alternatively, infographics or iconography can provide a succinct and detailed insight into the process. “The composability of the identity system allowed us to layer components in a way that always started with a very simple story,” McIntyre-Lee adds. “More definition and detail could then be added depending on the audience we were addressing, whether that be industrial partners, investors, consumers, or commercial customers.”

Zeus Jones

Dimensional Energy