Light Years Ahead
Faculty | Workspace branding for an AI-led innovation agency
“We’ve had lunch together every day since we opened the office. That’s never happened. I think we would have paid twice the amount just to have that.”
— Vicky Marchington, Chief People Officer
Faculty is a human-led, AI-driven consultancy that uses its expertise to help clients predict the future. Always growing, Faculty moved to a larger floor plate at their London HQ – stepping away from an inherited, ‘tech-generic’ shell into their first personally curated office.
Motive worked closely with Faculty’s brand and people teams, delivering the project on a tight two-month timeline. The mission? To capture tone, culture, and identity through meaningful workspace design, building a sense of belonging for a hybrid team.
A brand environment built in layers
The result is a premium, light refraction-inspired space that mirrors Faculty’s visionary work and the people behind it.
From the moment you enter, the tone is clear: Faculty has arrived. Blacked-out hallway walls and ceilings tighten the space, creating a more immersive experience. Overhead, a light-trail installation leads the way. It’s spatial storytelling at its most intentional.
On either side, Faculty’s game-changing data output, the very projects that made their name, isn’t just printed and framed. It comes alive through multi-dimensional, interactive installations. These pieces show, rather than tell, what makes Faculty different.
Art, AI, and the spirit of innovation
Each meeting room features AI-generated artwork inspired by pioneers in machine learning. These aren’t simple decorative flourishes. They invite reflection, connecting the brand’s past, present, and future through art.
Throughout the office, signage and shelving echo fragmented light, a key influence on Faculty’s brand. When reflected in the rooms’ dichroic finishes, they form new aesthetics. The conceptual and analytical depth of Faculty’s purpose is literally mirrored across the space.
A breakout space designed for connection
As you reach the heart of the office, what was once an all-grey-everything, low-ceilinged breakout area now bursts with life and cultural references. It’s not just a place to eat, but to come together.
Walls shift from cool blues into warm pinks and golds, hand-sprayed to resemble changing light. Above the bar, custom neon signage celebrates the team’s regular pizza and beer gatherings, with a design unique to Faculty. Opposite sits a bespoke ‘Game of Life’ installation – a zero-player game that sparks ideas for machine learning engineers through its unpredictable outcomes.
A space unmistakably Faculty
Faculty wanted an office branding project that felt truly theirs. A space that brought people back together, highlighting the human side of their formula. What they’ve achieved is an environment that tells their story – and no one else’s.
It’s a workplace that looks and feels like a journey through time and space, perfectly aligned with Faculty’s own. Think Pink Floyd in a Millennium Falcon. It radiates cool, pride, work ethic, collaboration, experimentation, and process. It simply is Faculty.
