Digital Transformation Triumph: A Brighter Online Experience by Jeff SugarmanDigital Transformation Triumph: A Brighter Online Experience by Jeff Sugarman

Digital Transformation Triumph: A Brighter Online Experience

Jeff Sugarman

Brand Strategist

Creative Director

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Ora’s branding process reveals an opportunity.

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC), a non-profit organization and champion of energy efficiency in the commercial lighting industry, asked Ora to reenergize their brand. A small team of highly motivated industry experts, the DLC has grown from a start-up into the leading resource in the US and Canada for rigorous evaluations of lighting products. The time had come for their brand to catch up with their progress.

Ora created a new brand identity that reflects the DLC’s mission and professionalism. The new tagline, “Bringing efficiency to light,” captures the brand’s promise to provide expertise, tools, and open dialog to drive efficiency in commercial lighting. The bright color palette of the logo reflects the passion and optimism of the brand. The colors are warm and inviting, subtly reinforcing the collaborative nature of the DLC’s process. It’s geometric letter forms project a sense of competence and reliability. The radiant lines are symbolic of the DLC’s mission to drive efficient lighting.

The DLC relies heavily on their website to publish their findings. Following Ora’s branding process, and with the aid of the DLC staff, core users of the website were interviewed to gain insight into how they use it. Core users told us that accessing the DLC’s product databases is a vital part of their daily workflow. A reflection of the importance they placed on the DLC’s work. However, they also reported high levels of frustration when trying to access relevant data – undermining the DLC’s mission. Using these insights, the new website design emphasizes direct access to the site’s search functions. Refinements were also made to how search results are displayed, providing users with several new options to sort and view information. Announcements about upcoming events and changes to the databases are now highlighted on the home page, preventing unwanted surprises to users and increasing the likelihood that they will attend events. Lastly, Ora improved the presentation of the DLC staff bios to help users and staff members connect.