2014 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

We wanted to shift the views on science from: Science is so hard. Science is imported. Science is not relevant. to this: Science is magical. Science is fun. Science is cool. We knew that the Abu Dhabi curriculum has been too rigid, and partially to blame for the lack of interest in science and maths amongst local Emirati students. There's a true thirst for such an initiative with these interesting workshops. This initiative has the capacity to grow and evolve to include a greater age group, more activities and reach more places within the emirate, achieving its 100% penetration goal.

The Brief

To develop a School Outreach Programme sparking interest in science and technology for the nation’s youth while supporting Abu Dhabi 2030. We worked with TDC to create a compelling Brand Positioning, Name and Identity for the School Outreach programme that engages key audiences to ‘create science memories". There are two main reasons why science is not popular with children: Many kids don’t have the proper support from their parents, and science in presented in a dry and hard manner. This school outreach initiative is touching on something that students are familiar with, but the approach is new and fresh.

How the final design was conceived

We discovered that the concept of 'Why?' is at the heart of science. A quest to understand and explain 'Why?' is the motivation for all science greats from Galileo to Einstein. With this in mind, we decided to build the brand around the concept 'Why', or 'Lema?' in Arabic. The result is an interactive, living brand where the identity itself is used to explain scientific principles.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Within three months of launch Lema? had achieved it's annual objective of introducing 15,000 children to science. The brand played crucial role is making science approachable and our work has been acclaimed by all those who interact with it. The brand was hugely successful due to it being simple, approachable, and interactive, with a swift launch and an extensive roll-out across Abu Dhabi. It was viewed positively by the schools and government bodies responsible. Best of all, “the kids got it, loved interacting with it, and now they recognize it anywhere, recognizing that it stands for what’s cool and fun”.