The Challenge

MIT ERA is one research collaborative made of three labs — UMERA, NACERA, and SIERA, each with its own focus. The hard part isn't presenting them separately; it's holding them together. Much of the work overlaps, so the identity had to keep each lab distinct while making the shared through-line, cities, nature, and AI as connected systems, obvious.

The Approach

The system starts from the name. UMERA, NACERA, and SIERA all resolve into ERA, and that logic carries into the visual identity: a shared structure, typography, and masthead that all three sit under.

At the center is a circular mark inspired from planet Earth, the common ground for every project across the labs, whether it deals with cities, ecosystems, or AI. The circle reads as the planet and as a single point all three labs return to, anchoring the identity and giving the system its core motif. From there, each lab gets its own color world drawn from its subject. UMERA pulls from urban materials. NACERA from forest and nature, and SIERA from the language of machine learning. Each lab is recognizable on its own, and all three are unmistakably part of one ERA.

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