“Lema?” has to work for three primary audiences, first and foremost, children, secondly teachers and thirdly parents. To position the program correctly, we had to understand how each see science, the barriers to engagement in science and identify what triggers can be put in place to motivate engagement in an outreach program.

We discovered that the concept of “Why?” is at the heart of science. A quest to understand and explain “Why?” is the motivation for all science greats from Galileo to Einstein. With this in mind, we decided to build the brand around the concept “Why”, or “Lema?” in Arabic. The result is an interactive, living brand where the identity itself is used to explain scientific principles.

Within three months of launch Lema? had achieved it’s annual objective of introducing 15,000 children to science. The brand played crucial role is making science approachable and our work has been acclaimed by all those who interact with it. The brand was hugely successful due to it being simple, approachable, and interactive, with a swift launch and an extensive roll-out across Abu Dhabi. It was viewed positively by the schools and government bodies responsible. Best of all, “the kids got it, loved interacting with it, and now they recognize it anywhere, recognizing that it stands for what’s cool and fun”.