Nous Energy – Koncentra
A startup rewriting what energy means. We gave it a brand to be seen by: a mark, a system and a voice, all charged by a single idea.
Nous is an Italian foodtech company, founded in 2024, working on the next generation of functional ingredients for the Food and Beverage and Nutraceutical markets. Its first ingredient, Koncentra, is a botanical alternative to caffeine: the same focus and energy, without the side effects that usually follow. And it asks less of the planet, using about 60% less water and up to 80% less CO₂ than caffeine drawn from green coffee, with Nous working toward a zero waste production cycle by 2028. It’s an idea the market has already backed, with a 2.315 million euro seed round led by dsm firmenich Ventures in 2026.
The brief for DSGN was not to decorate a product. It was to give a science born startup a face. We built everything from scratch, the logo, the brand identity, the brand guidelines and the website, so that Nous and Koncentra reach the market speaking with one voice. Sustainability became one of the two forces the whole identity stands on, the reason the deep green runs through everything, from the logo to the last frame of the website.
services
Branding
Graphic Design
Development
Web Design
client
Nous energy
Koncentra
year
2024 – 2025
Direction
Elena Rinaldi
category
Brand Identity
Web Design
Team
Alex Cardì, Elena Rinaldi
An invisible ingredient, a brand you can feel
Nous energy came to us with science. A proprietary ingredient, a clear mission, and a payoff waiting to be turned into a language: energy.
Koncentra is a functional ingredient, a soluble, tasteless powder drawn from roots, seeds, leaves and fruit, engineered to sharpen memory, concentration and reflexes without the jitters, the spikes or the crash of caffeine. By design, it is invisible. Our task was the opposite of hiding it. We had to make its promise legible at a glance, and give a startup born in the laboratory the presence of a brand that already belonged on the shelf.
We started where Nous started, from the one word that holds the whole company together: Energy. Not as decoration, but as the organising principle for everything that followed: the mark, the system and, in the end, the website.
Energy, cut into the name
The idea comes straight from the payoff: energy. The lettering meets a stylised bolt, an ideal, essential lightning strike, and is split in two by it.
The Nous wordmark is not simply drawn, it is charged. A stylised thunderbolt runs through the lettering and cuts it in half, the way a current cuts through everything it touches. The break is the point. Energy is not printed on top of the name, it passes through it. What could have been an abstract logo becomes a small event, the moment the spark lands.
It is a mark built to be reduced, animated and repeated. The bolt works as a full logo and as a standalone symbol, so Nous can sign a package, a slide or a single social frame with the same gesture.
Koncentra
Koncentra’s mark is built on the same principle as its parent. The product and the company recognise each other on sight.
Nous is the parent brand. Koncentra, its first ingredient, needed an identity of its own while remaining clearly connected to the wider brand system.
Rather than making the two wordmarks look alike, we created a shared visual principle: the same distinctive cut that shapes the Nous logotype also appears within Koncentra. Each name retains its own character, while the recurring gesture establishes an immediate relationship between them.
The result is a flexible identity system designed to grow with the brand. As Nous expands its ingredient portfolio, each new product can develop its own identity while remaining recognisably part of the same family.
A brand built to hold a current
Beyond the logo, we designed the full brand identity and the guidelines that keep it consistent, from colour and type to the rules that govern the mark.
We developed a complete visual identity for Nous, built around a distinctive colour palette of deep botanical green and vivid orange. The green reflects the natural origin of the ingredients and the brand’s commitment to sustainability, while the orange brings energy and contrast to the system.
The identity is supported by a clear typographic framework, a series of isometric 3D illustrations that make complex and intangible concepts easier to understand, and a photographic direction focused on natural textures, raw materials and close-up details.
Every element was brought together in a comprehensive set of brand guidelines, created to help the internal team apply the identity consistently across different touchpoints and markets.
More than a collection of rules, the guidelines provide Nous with a practical and scalable system: flexible enough to support the company’s growth, but defined enough to preserve a recognisable and coherent brand.
website
We designed and developed the Nous website as a dynamic extension of the brand identity, translating its visual language into motion, interaction and a cohesive digital experience.
The website translates the Nous identity into an immersive digital experience. Built with GSAP and WebGL, it combines fluid transitions with interactive visual elements inspired by leaves, particles and molecular structures. Motion is used to guide the narrative, reveal content and connect the brand’s natural origins with its scientific dimension, creating an experience that feels dynamic, precise and distinctly Nous.
