Together Academy - Red Dog - Design Consultants Dublin

Discipline

Brand Identity

Sector

Non-profit

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Bringing social enterprise and education together

Today over 90% of adults with Down Syndrome in Ireland are unemployed. Together Academy was established with a mission to change this. A unique college and social enterprise cafe in Dublin, Together Academy will provide people with Down Syndrome specialised certified training, on the job experience, future work placements and a critical social and support network.

The Approach

The Together Academy is an innovative and unique concept – the first of its kind in Ireland – whose mission is to provide a place to belong and thrive, a positive community and springboard for its students.

Together Academy Case Study Together Cafe 2

We intended to create a brand that has buckets of character, is warm, approachable and reflects the energy and passion of the Together Academy. In short, a contemporary, energetic and engaging brand that demonstrates how life-changing this will be for adults with Down Syndrome. We also wanted the identity to be able to grow with the organisation. At the moment they are an academy and café, but they could expand into other areas – so we wanted to ensure our solution would grow with them.

As Together Academy is a new concept, we decided on a logotype to establish the brand name and build recognition. Within the logotype, the 't' in 'together' wraps a supportive arm around the 'h', demonstrating that support, teamwork and warmth are core to Together Academy.

We chose Value Serif Bold & Value Sans Bold as our font family – to best represent the Together Academy family. Value is a contemporary family of two typefaces, and together they bring distinctive design features; a notch in the letters 'f' and 'j' as well as a single-story a which is unusual in serif font designs giving the mark a unique feel.

Supported with an optimistic colour palette, photography and messaging, the result is a brand identity and graphic language that keeps Together Academy's warmth and supportive nature at its heart.

We needed to be change-makers – and Red Dog understood that. The identity for the Together Academy represents interesting, cool, smart young adults who happen to have Down syndrome. Red Dog worked with us to change perceptions and create an identity that will help us to provide a brighter future for our young adults.

Laura O'Neill, Together Academy