Hex Digital Designs and Launches New Brand for OKRE

Hex Digital, a new breed of digital agency, has today announced that it has developed the brand and visual identity for OKRE: Opening Knowledge across Research and Entertainment, a new body which aims to bring together the research sector, entertainment industries and personal lived experience to support the creation of compelling content that expands people’s understanding of the world.

Hex was appointed to help develop a distinctive brand for OKRE, including a new name, tagline, visual identity, and digital assets. There are organisations that work within the research sector, organisations that work within the entertainment sector, and organisations that work across social impact, but few have the ability to work across all of these sectors to ensure the effective sharing of information between them. This meant that the brand identity and the corresponding website design for OKRE had to be finely balanced to appeal to all groups.

OKRE, led by Iain Dodgeon, formerly broadcast, games and film manager at Wellcome, is one of the first organisation’s of its kind to effectively span and bring together the Research, Entertainment and Social Impact sectors. With the ambitious plans, and independent identity, OKRE needed a profile and brand that could reflect this.

“Hex had experience in brand development for a diverse range of clients. They were quick to grasp what OKRE was about and demonstrated a strong collaborative approach,” said Iain Dodgeon, director of OKRE. “It was important for us to work with an organisation who could create a playful and contemporary brand that would speak to the different sectors with which we work.”

With its ‘Power of Many’ collaboration model, Hex brings a truly unique approach to its clients, working closely with them to deliver insights and ideas that are free of one-directional thinking and siloed approaches. To do this, Hex collaborates with its clients and beyond, drawing on the experience, research and opinions of academics, sector experts, and industry thought leaders to help clients tell their story.

"Working with OKRE has been a pleasure and a privilege for us. It’s becoming more and more apparent that today’s challenges require multidisciplinary organisations and multidisciplinary approaches, driven by the right intention and purpose,” commented Stefan Ferguson, managing partner at Hex Digital. “We see this with other clients like CEPI - the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations - who have created a dynamic model to tackle a global challenge and address a systemic market failure in vaccine production and access. Our own highly collaborative approach reflects the nature of these complex 21st century organisations, and enables us to bring fresh perspectives to bear, and to create bold work that helps support their ambitious goals.”

OKRE is currently incubated at Wellcome. Other partners include UKRI, Joseph Roundtree Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy.