CLIENT
Foundation Medicine
ROLE
Creative Director
Brand Designer
AR/Environmental Design
Implementing a New Brand
Elevating a Brand Internally and Externally Through a New Identity
Foundation Medicine is a cutting edge genomic cancer research company named one of FastCo’s 50 most innovative in the world (No.1 in Biotech). They had just gone through a brand audit with IDEO when we came on board. My team and I were tasked with building out the brand concepts across multiple touch points. At the same time we needed to concept and execute an interactive and augmented reality booth experience for one of the largest cancer industry conferences in the world (ASCO).
Implementing the Brand
IDEO had created a new brand book. Our job was to implement that where the rubber meets the road — the touch points. That included among other things: digital sales tools, corporate collateral, identity elements and one of their most important touch points — their specimen kits.
implementing the brand
Tools for the Team
A big part of implementing the new brand was building out a myriad of communication tools for them. We created print collateral and digital sales tools for different audiences and rebranded a broad suite of scientific documentation. We also had the pleasure of concepting and designing a unique icon system that contained a number of unusual pieces like lungs, pelvis, and breast.
Designing New Kits
Foundation had a unique problem in that research determined Oncologists were skeptical of and didn’t like products that looked “too slick”. The doctors felt it didn’t seem scientifically legitimate unless it felt like the utilitarian and poorly designed things they were used to. Foundation however, needed updated packaging for their specimen kits that could be more effective at holding the samples, be less confusing, and be easily recognizable one from another when stacked on doctor’s shelves. In addition the kits needed to convey that Foundation was top of class and stood above their older but less scientifically rigorous competitors.
We researched what worked and didn’t about both their and their competitors kits. Then we worked with the scientific packaging company that handled their samples, the doctors, and the in-house scientists to come up with a solution that met all these needs, and worked to express the new brand.
Making the Booth
ASCO is huge and a reputation maker in the cancer research space, Foundation needed to make a compelling showing as a relative newcomer. On a limited budget compared to the Big Pharma giants that fill the conference, they needed to drive engagement and tell their story to the oncologists who attend. Working together we came up with a booth that stood out visually and used augmented reality and interactive kiosks to drive engagement, educate and inform doctors about their cutting edge research.
making the booth
Longtails Plots & Augmented Reality
In our immersion phase in this incredibly complex field we discovered that Longtail plot diagrams are the center of the way Foundation does what it does. Data is key. Working together we came up with the idea of creating a sculpture of the long tail plot that could simultaneously function as a glowing visual symbol of the heart of what they do, at the heart of their booth and also be a physical starting point for the AR story they wanted to tell.
Augmented Reality
In our immersion phase in this incredibly complex field we discovered that Longtail plot diagrams are the center of the way Foundation does what it does. Data is key. Working together we came up with the idea of creating a sculpture of the long tail plot that could simultaneously function as a glowing visual symbol of the heart of what they do, at the heart of their booth and also be a physical starting point for the AR story they wanted to tell.
