Research Papers: making a difference with evidence-based solutions.

In classrooms around the country, today’s youth are preparing to succeed in school, lead in their communities, and impact the world. At HMH, the approach involved a deeper commitment to developing programs, professional services, and integrated solutions that help teach and reach the next generation of learners.

Our offerings are anchored in a robust review of evidence, learning sciences, and effective classroom practice. Every program or service is then subject to rigorous and ongoing efficacy research to ensure we deliver on this commitment.

Evidence and research are extremely important in the education industry when looking for solutions that will benefit students. When evaluating solutions for their districts, key decision makers want to be able to demonstrate that the solution they select is the best option and based on the needs of students and teachers in different regions or states.

Although lacking the aesthetic appeal of brochures, websites and other marketing collateral, creating a visual element is key to providing consistency with existing brand elements.

I was tasked to update a Research Foundation paper for HMH Science Dimensions® for HMH’s Research Division while keeping the content engaging to the reader. Upon diving into previous design files, it was apparent that the high-level branding had deteriorated and the design had become dated. The styles, especially typographically, had been altered too many times and were inconsistent.

I presented my findings and new initial concept to the Creative Director, Design Manager and key stakeholders and was the given the go ahead. I had no idea that this one project would lead to a 6+ month campaign in developing a entire new system for all research papers for the Research Division.

After a kick-off meeting and several followup meetings with the stakeholders and account managers, we determined that the Research Division paper fell into four types: Research Foundations, Technical Guides, Professional Guides, and Case Studies.

A lot of conceptualizing, planning and time was spent on the structure, creating a modular/flexible delivery system that could be applied globally. I led and worked with two additional designers, various account managers and copywriters to execute, and create the new graphical brand.

Now that the Research Division’s paper had a modern, clean style with established branding and typographic approach lets apply that system to the Marketing Division’s. Both divisions research papers had a huge value but completely different audiences. I developed the Marketing Division’s research papers to be consistent in brand and styling but stand apart. It was a global approach to align them and build a robust system that could be applied to either.

Now that we have an established research paper style and brand, I then created a traditional design style guide and additionally created a visual guide in MURAL. I deployed to the design, account management and stakeholder teams to ensure that the branding and styles especially typographically did not degrade as others were assigned papers and touched files. As the brand expert for research papers, I had final approval of all projects to maintain consistent development.