The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale University is an ambitious and multidisciplinary initiative focused on the study of human cognition. Established thanks to a generous gift from Joseph C. Tsai, Esq., ’86, ’90 J.D. and Clara Wu Tsai, the institute unites leading researchers at Yale and beyond, connecting scientific breakthroughs via computation, while also fueling advances using machine learning. The goal of the institute is to expand our knowledge of human cognition, allowing individuals—and societies—to reach their fullest potential.

The institute is comprised of three research pillars: the Center for Neurodevelopment and Plasticity, the Center for Neurocognition and Behavior and the Center for Neurocomputation and Machine Intelligence. They work across multiple scales of inquiry, ranging from cell biology to brain research, psychology to data science.

Through close collaboration and strategic engagement with the institute, FAY was commissioned to design a visual identity system that communicates the multidisciplinary, collaborative nature of their work. A simple dot motif captures a multitude of research across different scales of inquiry, departments and subject matters. Taken together, they present a fuller view of human cognition.

For the project, FAY also developed a web-based generative illustration application to enable the quick creation of stylized vector illustration assets. By inputting a source image and selecting from a pre-determined set of output variables, the institute’s teams can easily produce their own branded assets—abounding with clusters of dots.