Harvard Medical: SysBio Ph.D. program rebrand

opportunity

The revolutionary Systems Biology Ph.D. program at Harvard Medical School intersects six disciplines: biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, physics, and mathematics. After a successful first year, the program needed to attract competitive doctoral candidates as well as investment partners from across backgrounds and disciplines. Despite the existence of other Institutes and think-tanks in Systems Biology, the SysBio Ph.D. program is unique to Harvard.

Schwadesign solution

SysBio practitioners are encouraged to ask questions more than to provide answers, probing unsolved problems using a cross-disciplinary, multi-faceted methodology. Thus, it was necessary to create an accurate visual representation depicting the modularity that the disciplines offer as candidates construct their program of study. Pulling from the vernacular of biology’s own hexagonal cell structure, the rebrand simultaneously conveys flexibility and openness created by the program. The central shape and strong color palette translate successfully across media, and the poster’s whitespace suggests: There’s still ground to be covered! The website showcases the combinatory and collaborative potential.

providing

Rebrand strategy, content development & editing, ads, poster, flyer, photography

belief

“The response for the website and collateral materials has extremely positive. Our materials certainly stood out at the conferences we went to and many people even stopped to mention how interesting our brochure was. In response to the website, one of our faculty members wrote to me “How do you guys do such totally cool websites??? Not fair!! Who does all this stuff for you?” So thank you so much for all your great work!”

— Samantha Reed, Harvard Medical School SysBio program