Refreshed brand for center
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OPPORTUNITY
Stanford University is home to one of the world’s most renowned hubs for health technology innovation education. Its Center for Biodesign has helped more than 13 million people since 2001 with the companies and technologies that originated there. In 2024, a significant gift led to a need for rebranding, changing the name from the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign to the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign. (Here’s a press article.) A major goal of the rebrand was to signal a bold future for the Center, as it has added offerings to welcome students with even more diverse goals and backgrounds. One constraint: Directors at the university wished for a green circle to be retained in the new logo, as this element had become iconic to the brand. SOLUTION I assessed the audiences that the Center seeks to engage and how the center’s history, goals, and values can be reflected visually. I solo-designed a visual identity system based on geometric forms and grids, inspired by the Center’s foundations in engineering and renowned blueprint for structured creativity. With the constraint to retain a green circle in the logo, I amplified the circle to suggest inclusion, boldness, and positive momentum when positioned in layouts. I developed a suite of line art to suggest iteration cycles and progress, and assembled a warmer, more vibrant color palette to convey diversity, active collaborations, and accessible humanness. I selected the typeface for its friendly, legible, geometric forms, which complement the grid-based system as well as the iconic green circle, the “Impact Circle.” For more on the branding design rationale, please view the guidebook. Guidebook
I produced a brand guidebook detailing the new identity system and articulating the design strategy. Sections on brand foundations and brand voice were developed separately from this collaboration. I also produced a library of graphic elements and templates for easy content creation. Click to view the guidebook.
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Original logo
The refreshed logo
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Visual attributes
Logo design notes
Applications
I also assisted with the redesign of their website, from mockup development to graphics packaging.
At the announcement of the major donor gift, Stanford University presented this animated logo reveal. I did not produce the animation, so this was a delightful surprise to see the branding system brought to life so dynamically. I was particularly pleased the team portrayed the hidden rhythm in my design of the three black dots and green circle (I designed them to suggest the syllables BI-O-DE-SIGN, but it’s not obvious when static).
Sticky note cubes given away at the brand reveal to encourage more ideas and innovation.