Putting people before data in a world of bots and fraud.

The data industry has a problem. AI, bots, broken forms, fraud and theft have muddied the quality of consumer data, and built a culture of distrust around data itself. This has distanced brands from their most reliable source of data: people.

U Group is a data company that believes in something that shouldn’t be revolutionary (but certainly feels like it): giving people agency over their data. U Group creates direct, transparent exchanges between people and brands, resulting in high-quality, highly equitable data, straight from the source.

U Group didn’t want to just stand out from its competitors — they wanted to challenge and shake up the data industry. To do this, we first needed to help them reframe the story of data — and we quickly discovered that helping brands understand data really meant helping them understand people. Rather than just treat data as intangible code, here was an opportunity to find the human meaning in the data point. 

With this perspective, we created a strategy that placed 'People Before Data'. Now, U Group had the framework to approach every data point, every conversation and every graph through this people-first lens.

The identity draws inspiration from the physical world of identification, authentication, and security. Extrapolated from a functional Code-128 barcode, the logo acts as a symbol of holographic certification, stamped across the identity system; the bespoke wordmark simulates a tactile ink-bleed effect, a softer contrast to the data and tech industries; and a punch-card ‘data point’ graphic device is used to anchor imagery and text.

The brand voice places people first, revealing the human stories within the data points. Language satirises the jargon and cliches overused within the industry, with disclaimers and t’s & c’s flipped to show transparency. And confident headlines turn impenetrable subjects into accessible declarations.

By emphasising the very real people who give data meaning, and demanding an ethical data landscape, we helped U Group start a much needed global conversation about what data is — and what it can be.