The Challenge
Havas brought us in to lead the brand audit and identity rebuild for Schmidt Futures, the philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt. The mission centers on supporting talent. Helping students and emerging leaders achieve outsized impact in technology, scientific discovery, and the partnerships that move society forward.
The initiative was preparing to expand. More capital. More partnerships. More students. The existing brand had served its early years but wasn't built to carry the next phase. Schmidt Futures needed a system that could read as serious to institutional partners, accessible to the students the work supports, and scalable across the surfaces a growing initiative actually operates on.
The Strategy
We started with a brand audit. The audit surfaced what was working, what was inconsistent, and where the brand was undersold against the seriousness of the mission. From the audit, we anchored the rebuild to one principle. The brand had to read as serious as the partners the initiative depends on, and as accessible as the students it exists to support.
That principle drove every decision. Schmidt Futures isn't a foundation in the conventional sense. It's an operational initiative that mobilizes capital, program funding, and partnerships at speed. The brand had to signal that operational character to institutional partners while staying accessible to the students who would interact with the initiative through programs, fellowships, and grants.
The Identity System
The visual identity is built around a confident, restrained system. Color, typography, and the supporting graphic language are designed to read across the scientific, the philosophical, and the operational registers the initiative actually works in. The brand carries the weight of the mission without sliding into the conventions of legacy philanthropy.
The brand guidelines were built to govern the system across the wide range of partners, programs, and communications Schmidt Futures runs.
Applications
Visual identity. Logo, color, type, and the supporting system.
Brand guidelines. A comprehensive document built to govern the system across programs, partnerships, and communications.
Design system. A cohesive look and feel that runs across the initiative's full surface.
