Website homepage for the University of Haifa’s Laboratory for Computational Optics and Light in the Ocean Realm
color lab
Exploring the ocean in full color
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Keisha Okafor, logo design & illustration
Emily Vriesman, website strategy & build
Kika Tuff, creative direction
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Brand Strategy
Logo Design
Content Strategy & Development
Creative Direction and Production
Custom illustrations
Copywriting
Website Design
UX / UI / UA
A new way to see the ocean
What if we could see the underwater world without the blue veil that obscures so much of its color and detail?
At the University of Haifa’s Laboratory for Computational Optics and Light in the Ocean Realm (COLOR Lab), Dr. Derya Akkaynak and her team are developing new ways to see, measure, and understand life beneath the surface. Based on the shores of the Red Sea, this interdisciplinary engineering lab combines physics, computer vision, and real-world ocean exploration to build imaging technologies that are transforming how scientists study the marine environment.
For a lab whose research is inherently visual, the challenge was to create a brand that could capture both the technical sophistication of its science and the extraordinary beauty of the world it studies. Derya wanted a professional, memorable identity that would showcase the lab’s discoveries, attract talented researchers from around the world, and communicate the excitement of working at the intersection of engineering and ocean science.
We developed a complete visual identity and custom website that bring these worlds together.
From a logo inspired by the physics of light and the landscape of the Red Sea to playful illustrations of scientists at work, the brand celebrates the lab’s technical curiosity, adventurous spirit, and love of the ocean. The result is a digital home that feels as distinctive as the science itself, inviting visitors to explore the underwater world in full color.
Brand design for the Color Lab at the University of Haifa
about the lab
From outer space to the depths of the ocean
Derya Akkaynak’s path to ocean science began with a career in aerospace engineering. Having grown up on the shores of the Aegean Sea, she realized she wanted to spend her days exploring the ocean rather than the skies above it. During her doctoral research, she turned her engineering expertise toward a fascinating biological question: how do marine animals like octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish camouflage themselves so effectively in their underwater environments?
That question led her into the physics of light, underwater imaging, and computer vision, ultimately inspiring the creation of the COLOR Lab. Today, her team develops mathematical models of how light travels through water, builds new cameras and imaging systems, and tests its innovations in the ocean just outside the laboratory.
The implications of this work extend far beyond beautiful underwater photographs. Water absorbs and scatters light, obscuring the colors and details that scientists need to understand marine life. By developing technologies that correct these distortions, the COLOR Lab is helping researchers extract more meaningful information from underwater images, investigate the visual worlds of marine animals, and explore new ways to monitor the health of ocean ecosystems. Central to this work is a commitment to making ocean exploration more accessible, developing tools that allow more scientists around the world to study the marine environment. In a time when our oceans are changing faster than we can understand them, the lab is working to accelerate discovery and deepen our connection to the underwater world.
Brand design for the Color Lab at the University of Haifa
The brand was designed to be:
NERDY, FUN, AND DIVERSE
The COLOR Lab embraces its nerdiness. This is a team that loves spending hours at a whiteboard, building custom instruments, and working through the mathematical details of how light behaves underwater.
We wanted the brand to celebrate that technical curiosity rather than hide it behind conventional ocean imagery. The logo brings together the mountains and waters of the Red Sea with flowing, intersecting waveforms that evoke the physics of light, while clean typography reinforces the precision and professionalism of an engineering lab.
For all its technical rigor, the COLOR Lab is also a place of joy, adventure, and play. The team moves between mathematical models and scuba dives, celebrates birthdays with elaborate cakes, and takes meetings along the beach while keeping an eye out for whale sharks and manta rays. We wanted the brand to capture the joy of doing science in such an extraordinary place.
We brought that playful spirit into the identity through vibrant magenta accents, schools of illustrated fish, and custom illustrations of divers, research vessels, and scientific instruments. These details give the brand a sense of movement and discovery, making the science feel approachable without diminishing its sophistication.
Diversity is fundamental to how the COLOR Lab works, bringing together researchers from different countries, cultures, and scientific disciplines to tackle questions that no single field could answer alone. We wanted the website to reflect that richness by showcasing the people, the science, the technology, and the marine environments that inspire their work. A flexible visual language combines underwater photography, custom illustration, bold color, and clean editorial layouts, creating room for the many perspectives that make up the lab.
The result is an identity that feels cohesive without being uniform, much like the team itself.
Project deliverables
Brand discovery and strategy
Brand naming and positioning
Mission, vision, and tagline development
Primary and secondary logo design
Custom illustrated brand marks
Color palette and typography system
Custom graphic elements and brand patterns
Brand guidelines
Website strategy and sitemap
Website copywriting and content development
Custom website design and development
Scientific illustration
Branded merchandise and collateral
Color palette for the Color Lab at the University of Haifa
Typography design for the Color Lab at the University of Haifa
web design — home page
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