CASE STUDY // BRAND DEVELOPMENT
After the logo
How to scale a design toolkit to build and define a brand
Syapse is a real-world evidence company working in partnership with health systems, life sciences companies, and regulators to solve the challenges of precision medicine and drive better outcomes for people with cancer around the world.
Fresh from completing a brand overhaul, Syapse had adopted a dynamic and vibrant new identity. With a brand toolkit in place — logo, color palette, typography — the company needed to translate this aesthetic to other touchpoints with their clients, investors, and employees.
Our approach
The motivation behind any rebrand is to align the visual expression of a brand with the current values and mission of an organization. Once a new identity is fleshed out and a toolkit is in place, the goal then becomes to create a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints that aligns with the new brand. This consistency builds brand recognition and is the foundation of a successful communication strategy when engaging with all stakeholders — employees, investors, clients, and prospects.
We began our work with three guiding principles: beauty, functionality, and consistency. We knew that any extensions of the brand that we built, from templates for presentations to posters, these principles needed to be present to achieve the goal of building brand recognition.
Our work
We were engaged to design the asset that would have the most reach and impact — the corporate presentation template. This template would be used by both internal and external facing teams in their communications and interactions with clients and investors. The template needed to be beautiful and easy to use so that the entire organization could use it consistently.
We designed two slide templates: general use and partner use (when co-presenting with a partner) for a myriad of uses — from simple text only content to detailed case studies to graphic data visualizations. Every template layout functioned as a cohesive part of the whole but with enough distinction to not feel repetitive. We included clear directives within each layout to guide the user on proper usage and also provided sample slides so it would be easy to see how a particular layout was meant to be used. To further ensure adoption, we offered guidance on how the template was organized and the intended application.
01
General use template
CLEAR GUIDANCE
Instructions and prompts provided within the template to ensure consistent use
COLOR USAGE
Guidance on color use to maintain a consistent visual hierarchy and presentation experience
ORGANIZED & THOUGHTFUL
Clear labeling and grouping of layout types along with accompanying explanations of intended use to remove the guesswork of selecting the appropriate layout
COMPREHENSIVE SIMPLICITY
Layouts were carefully designed to cover a myriad of uses (text-only, tables, case studies, data visualization) without overwhelming the content creation process
02
Partner use template
DISTINCT & ON-BRAND
The partner use template employs a new set of title and section divider slides to differentiate from the general corporate template. However, the interior supporting slides are interchangeable for ease of use and to maintain a consistent brand experience.
The business of real-world data and evidence is messy and complex. [Create Forward’s] ability to take disparate, complex information and simplify it through visuals has added tremendous value to our organization.
Create Forward takes a consultative approach to their work. The business of real-world data and evidence is messy and complex. Their ability to take disparate, complex information and simplify it through visuals has added tremendous value to our organization. We continue to evolve the way we talk about data, oncology and healthcare and they don’t miss a beat.
Create Forward brings more than design services, they are true thought partners in project planning, approvals and never misses a deadline – never. The team is exceptional at maintaining budget and timelines. But their real gift? Dealing with difficult SMEs. Niyati can talk through any problem or idea with any SME, some of who are at the top of the RWE game, and help them better tell their story or get to what it is they are hoping to accomplish.
Antoinette Cummins
Vice President, Marketing
SYAPSE
