During my tenure at Science 37, I contributed to the company’s growth from a small team to over 250 employees nationwide. I advanced from the lone designer to Art Director, building and leading a multidisciplinary team of over 30. I designed a contemporary brand identity system that balanced personality, professionalism, and excitement for clinical research and technology. My creative oversight spanned corporate marketing, clinical trial recruitment, UI/UX development, and training materials, increasing recruitment speeds to 27 times the national average, with over 60% of participants from underserved backgrounds. This work played a key role in securing Series C ($29M) and Series D ($40M) funding, ultimately reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of clinical research.
IDENTITY DESIGN & MARKETING
The mission of Science 37 is to bring scientific research to everyone, so I developed a contemporary visual design system to be inclusive and easily accessible to everyone. Because the company interacts with corporate sponsors and the scientific community, the look and feel needs to be professional, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. Since it also recruits patients for trials, the look and feel of the company also needs to be friendly, fun, and innovative. Due to these seemingly opposite needs, I created a visual brand identity and guidebook using a unifying design language to help external vendors be consistent with our look and feel.
ART DIRECTION
When creating a framework for the photography that we would use at Science 37, I wanted to choose images that were approachable and human, and provide a photographic style that captures real moments. This is a far step away from the standard stock photography and I was fortunate enough to have an in-house photography team on my team to direct.
I lead our photographers to capture moments that would resonate with prospective patients and have a warm and inviting spirit. I consciously stayed away from hiring models in favor of showing genuine and authentic slices of life. Any of the people featured would have the potential to be someone you know or could know. As patients are the center of clinical trials, everything in our photography was designed to help tell a human story.
In order to add some more pop to our photos, I designed a system of photography styles that we could use to help draw people into the story. For the corporate facing and B2B designs, I create a system of monotone images with a series of icons that would help create visual punctuation on our photos. To draw our patients into the images, our message was embedded into the images to encourage our patients to engage more with the content.
VISUAL DESIGN
Science, health, and technology should always feel accessible. In order to achieve this, I used illustrations to ease the burden of complex topics. In a semi-flat design style for the illustrative style at Science 37 so we could be instantly recognizable and stand out from the other clinical trial companies. I developed a colorful and inviting semi-flat design aesthetic that stretched across all branded materials from presentations, websites, to the web and mobile apps. These illustrations were heavily used in our patient-facing and social media materials and helped catch prospective patient’s eyes by being friendly and bold, but kept a trustworthy and approachable feeling. One of the largest hurdles of running a clinical trial is being able to recruit patients in a timely manner, during my time at Science 37 and the application of this style, we saw 50% faster patient recruitment than other sides within the same trial. All illustrations are my original artwork and were created in Adobe Illustrator.
CLINICAL TRIAL MARKETING
I approach each marketing endeavor as an opportunity to connect with people and market directly to their deeper wants and needs. Recruitment is one of the first major challenges for clinical trials that can lead to research failing and a new drug or treatment not reaching the market. I combine my unique educational background in Anthroplogy with a proven career in visual design to reach people and find what would make them want to volunteer for a clinical trial. My approach for reaching prospective patients is always to bring a unique sense of cultural understanding as well as regimented A/B testing.
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN
In this research study sponsored by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, I was tasked with developing a recruitment campaign aimed at individuals experiencing depression. Recognizing the inherently heavy nature of the subject matter, my approach was to infuse the campaign with a sense of levity, allowing us to connect with prospective participants on a deeper, more human level without directly depicting the difficult emotions they were facing.
I created the concept, imagery, and copy for the campaign, carefully crafting each element to resonate with the target audience in a compassionate and relatable way. The campaign featured inanimate objects that subtly symbolized feelings of hopelessness and despair, offering participants a new perspective on their experience. This approach was not only approved through the rigorous processes of both the sponsor and the Institutional Review Board (IRB), but it also achieved remarkable success.
The recruitment materials were distributed across social media, print, and through advocacy groups, leading to full recruitment in record time. Participants expressed that they truly connected with the imagery, appreciating the fresh, compassionate take on their depression. This campaign stands as a testament to the power of thoughtful, empathetic design in healthcare communications.
LUPUS RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN
Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease, with a diagnosis that varies greatly from person to person. Its symptoms are often internal, making it difficult to diagnose, though it can occasionally manifest externally as a malar butterfly rash across the face. This research study, sponsored by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, aimed to better understand and address these challenges.
My approach to this project began with in-depth discussions with doctors and patient groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of Lupus and its impact on daily life. From these conversations, I learned that the invisible nature of most Lupus symptoms can make the condition particularly isolating for those who suffer from it.
With a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, I sought to ensure that our recruitment materials reflected a broad range of demographics. Recognizing that the majority of clinical trials have traditionally been directed at white men and women, I focused on promoting inclusion by depicting a diverse array of individuals in our campaign. This approach was designed to resonate with a wider audience and encourage participation from underrepresented groups, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and comprehensive research outcomes.
BE KIND, USEFUL & AWESOME
The unofficial motto of Science 37 is “be Kind, Useful & Awesome.” Wanting to expand our reach and propel our mission, we launched a joint campaign with the city of Los Angeles to spread the word. The campaign launched with an original song and music video and was later rolled out throughout the city with out-of-home advertisements, swag, and site-specific pop-ups installations. This campaign also issues a challenge to other biotech companies to adopt the “be Kind, Useful & Awesome” philosophy as they speak to patients in clinical trials. Being part of a clinical trial not only useful in creating new medicine and vaccines, but your contribution may also help save the lives of others and that is awesome. This was a passion project and I developed the marketing strategy and assets in partnership with the city of Los Angeles.
