DNCO

Seven years ago we became employee-owned. We mark it the same way each year, we stop and we do something that has nothing to do with work. It's a moment to reflect on what employee ownership actually means — everyone here has a say in how DNCO runs and a stake in where it goes. Want to join the team? Check out dnco.com/jobs to see our latest openings.

Place Camp is back for 2026 ↴

You can manufacture a creative district. But how do you create a place brand for one that is already thriving? In Episode 10 of DNCO 20/20, Joy Nazzari talks to James Craig, founder of Oval Real Estate, about branding Digbeth — a 20-acre former industrial estate in Birmingham that is home to everyone from the BBC to one-person studios. With an active and passionate community, the brief was to create a stewardship place brand that would elevate the quarter for all, not just act as real estate marketing. That meant thinking like the creative community that the brand serves, and avoiding a corporate approach. In James’s view, “The branding is really like a shop window, if you get that right, it makes it all so much easier. Your brand needs to last much, much longer than you might imagine.” And it extends to how Oval runs the estate day to day — “Being a landlord these days is much more akin to running a hotel. You’re offering a service rather than just handing the keys over.” Asked what he’d tell someone taking on a place brand of similar scale: “It’s presumptuous to turn up and assume that everybody shares your vision of the future.” That’s why there was such extensive engagement on the ground with people and companies, and how the collaboration was able to bring out an approach the quarter could get behind. Hear the key strategic decisions that led to the creation of the Digbeth brand in the full podcast episode. DNCO 20/20 is a podcast series marking our 20th anniversary, revisiting the clients behind our most consequential place brand projects and uncovering the lessons you only learn in hindsight. → Watch the full episode on Apple and Spotify, search ‘DNCO 20/20’

DNCO picked up three awards at the Brand Impact Awards last week. Our work on the Plymouth City Brand was recognised in both Brand Strategy and Public Sector — building on its shortlisting in the Creative Review Awards earlier this year — and Zudo, in collaboration with Victory Group, was recognised in Illustration. Thank you to our clients Destination Plymouth, Victory Group and LMTD, and to our external collaborators: illustrator Luis Mendo, Mother Goose Films and Fresh Air Studios. Photo credits: Stefan Jakubowski

New work: Workspace brand for Jakarta’s only new office tower to emerge in five years, for Mitsubishi Estate. Rising 331 metres and set within a complex of beautiful homes, restaurants and retail, a rare urban park and an Andaz hotel, Dua Two Sudirman will transform the CBD’s busiest stretch. Jakarta has always competed on height and prestige, but Dua offers an enlightened version of what an office can be — a place to step out of the rush without leaving the city behind. We distilled this into a single line: your workplace oasis. Dua means two in Indonesian, a nod to the two towers and two points of arrival. But it also speaks to the duality of the place: a mix of energy and calm, connection and focus, day and night. Inspired by the organic forms of the urban garden, the identity brings this duality to life — two overlapping oases forming the letter ‘D,’ bringing the city’s energy and the building’s calm together in a simple mark. Special thanks to Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. and our partners Forward and Seeds Motion. Case study now live on the DNCO website.

What does the future of downtown look like and how can place branding help shape it? That’s the conversation DNCO led at the International Downtown Association's 72nd Annual Conference in Toronto, bringing together the people shaping downtowns across North America. Luis Mendoza kicked things off with Jennie Kovalcik of Public Sphere Projects and Melissa Buckminster of the Downtown SF Partnership, leading a workshop on creating the roadmap from place branding to placemaking to place marketing. We shared eight insights for building a strong brand foundation: the starting point for successful placemaking strategies and marketing campaigns. We then brought together Clara Inés Schuhmacher from Team Dumbo, Britt Diehl from the Downtown Denver Partnership and Erica R. from National Landing BID for a conversation about reclaiming the narrative through strategic place branding. Drawing on our work together across three very different districts, we explored how a strong place brand can help move beyond negative headlines while creating a strategic foundation for future decision-making. And beyond the conference, we gathered friends and collaborators from Denver, Dumbo, San Diego, San Francisco, National Landing and beyond for DNCO’s Downtown Dinner at the Ace Hotel Toronto, a very special evening celebrating what we’ve achieved together over the past few years. Borrowing a few words we shared with our guests that night... the future of downtown isn’t about replacing offices. It’s about taking on a bigger role: becoming the stage where a city expresses its culture, tests new ideas and builds civic life. It’s where a city’s identity comes into focus. More than ever, downtown is where people come together to experience their city, shape its future and imagine what’s next. We’re proud to be helping shape that next chapter.

For the 2026 London Design Festival, DNCO has partnered with Transport for London on Line Station Train — an exhibition exploring how wayfinding design shapes our perception of time and place. From signs and symbols to the journeys we make every day, the exhibition looks at how design helps us navigate complex urban environments. Visit the exhibition for free at The Pickle Factory 5 New Tannery Way London SE1 5EB 12–20 September, from 12:00–2:00 pm

DNCO brings "handmade quality" to Vermont's revamped logo: https://lnkd.in/eVwV3bVs

In an era of logo rage, a new city brand can be torn apart within hours of going live. The Destination Plymouth team knew the risk from the start. The answer was to bring people across the city into the process from day one. In Episode 9 of DNCO 20/20, strategist Brenda Sjahrial talks with Amanda Lumley, Chief Executive of Destination Plymouth, about the evolution of Plymouth’s city brand — created to shift how the city is seen and support a £9 billion regeneration. Over 2,600 hours of meetings, co-creation and engagement brought communities, organisations, council and university stakeholders into the work as it developed, shaping the work rather than just being shown it. When the brand launched, the people who’d helped build it were already behind it, and organisations across the city — from Babcock to Plymouth Culture — soon began putting it to use. Watch the full episode to learn more about city branding and the Invest Plymouth story → Search ‘DNCO 20/20’ on Apple and Spotify. DNCO 20/20 is a podcast series marking our 20th anniversary, revisiting the clients behind our most consequential place brand projects, and uncovering the invaluable lessons you only learn in hindsight.