SSRC

The Social Science Research Council is an independent, international, nonprofit organization founded in 1923. It fosters innovative research programs, nurtures new generations of social scientists, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues.

As Creative Projects Manager, I led a team strategizing and implementing creative communication plans and created a cohesive brand across all programs, making social science accessible to all. The communications department effectively acted as an in-house creative agency.

Challenges & Goals

Build a cohesive branding system

The SSRC nurtures 22 research programs. Each one had a separate identity and wasn’t clearly linked to the main organization.

Create compelling digital content

Although tackling fascinating, timely topics, the SSRC appeared somehow dusty. I wanted to make sure important research was repackaged, simplified, and beautiful.

Branding

Brand Architecture

As Creative Coordinator, I led team efforts to create a strong brand identity across both print and digital platforms.

I started by organizing existing content for each program, before taking methodic steps to create a unified visual system.

I decided to build an umbrella brand system. Each program would clearly be identified as an output of the SSRC, while retaining their own logo.

In order to visually achieve this, I created a brand book from scratch, outlining all principles present in the SSRC master brand. This encompassed colors, typography, stationery design, web design guidelines, and social content (videos, images, newsletters).

I then assigned each program a dominant color, and declined unified layouts on all digital and print platforms.

I paid particular attention to making sure that the mission of each program was clearly communicated.  I inserted taglines on all program communication material, while always linking back to the overall mission of the SSRC.

Digital Content

Strategy

The SSRC’s digital content – essays, reports, and Council news updates – were disseminated through a number of channels, including websites, social media, and email.

The consistent tendency in tone was to talk to experts as experts. This isolated them from other interested audiences and worked against their institutional goal to “enhance public access to information.”

I put in place a number of campaigns to make research more accessible. The process included presenting strategic recommendations to executives, pushing for more video content or shorter pieces, as well as art direction, and execution.

I was responsible for leading these campaigns from conception to postproduction.

Making social science accessible

In January 2017, SSRC program Measure of America partnered with United Way to create the Common Good Forecaster, a tool forecasting how things might change in thousands of communities around the US if educational outcomes improved.

I designed infographics, created animated gifs, and directed social videos in under a week’s time.

Items is a digital forum of the SSRC. It publishes long form pieces bi-weekly. In order to simplify content, I created illustrations, directed videos to launch new series, and repackaged complex information to widen our audience. One particular format was the video article.

Misc work

I designed logos for several new programs, created illustrations and banners, and storyboarded video content.