dena — A fresh online presence

Where energy meets innovation

The Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) is Germany's energy agency, responsible for driving the country's energy transition. The Future Energy Lab is a flagship initiative that brings together participants from the digital and energy sectors to pilot innovative technologies, from smart grids to AI-driven efficiency tools.

The Lab needed a web presence that communicated its ambition clearly: this is where the energy future gets built, not just discussed.

Making complexity feel approachable

• Audience breadth. The site needed to speak to energy industry veterans, tech startups, policy-makers and the general public which are groups with very different expectations.
• Content depth. The Lab's work spans multiple programme areas with ongoing projects, events and publications. The IA needed to make this easy to navigate without overwhelming first-time visitors.
• Brand alignment. The Future Energy Lab had to feel distinct from dena's main brand while remaining visually coherent within the wider dena family.

Forward-looking, grounded in purpose

The aesthetic direction balanced ambition with clarity: a clean, open layout with strong typographic hierarchy and a palette drawn from dena's brand system, pushed in a more dynamic direction to reflect the Lab's innovation focus.

Content was structured around three entry points: what the Lab is, what it works on, and how to get involved. This allowed each audience type to quickly orient themselves and find the most relevant content.

Live at future-energy-lab.de

The website launched at future-energy-lab.de, establishing a dedicated digital home for the initiative that could grow alongside its programme. The visual system created for the site has since informed how dena communicates similar collaborative formats.