National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

To help the National Academies build on their legacy of excellence, we evolved their brand to better reflect the authority and impact of their work. A refreshed typography system, informed by the institution’s architectural signage, and an expanded color palette inspired by its publications created a stronger connection between its physical and digital presence.

Alongside this visual evolution, we developed a clearer content and messaging framework that enables the organization to tell more consistent stories and make its impact easier to understand. The new experience also brings greater visibility to the experts and the collaborative processes behind its work making it easier for academics and professionals to get involved.

We transformed the National Academies' experience from a fragmented content archive into a connected ecosystem where users can clearly understand what the organization does and what they can gain from it. A restructured information architecture and stronger relationships between topics, projects, experts, committees, and publications give research the context it previously lacked. Rather than encountering isolated outputs, audiences can now see how evidence is developed, how different areas of work connect, and how individual findings contribute to a broader mission—making the institution’s knowledge more discoverable, relevant, and accessible to wider audiences.

The transformation also addressed a critical operational need: enabling teams across the National Academies to publish and manage content more efficiently. We created a flexible system of templates that supports the full lifecycle of its work, from emerging topics and committee activity to published research and public engagement. 

A redesigned data architecture and content model give teams greater autonomy while maintaining consistency across the platform, helping previously disparate units communicate their focus, evidence, and impact as part of one coherent institutional story.