IDENTITY & BRANDING
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
MIT has one of the finest schools of humanities, arts, and social sciences in the world. Collaborating with three successive Deans, my mission as the school’s first comms director was to help raise the profile of the school at home and around the globe. Three of the initial projects were to develop:
A distinctive visual identity for materials from websites to posters to exhibits;
Language to convey why the Institute considers the humanistic fields vital;
Basic infrastructure (strategies, creative assets, team) for a thriving program.
VISUAL IDENTITY
MARK & IDENTITY PROGRAM
The flexible mark + tagline was applied to websites, print and digital publications, signage, etc. The tagline resonates with MIT’s “Mind and Hand” motto — inflected for the humanistic fields, emphasizing their capacity to affect change in the world.
Leadership: Dean Deborah Fitzgerald
Concept and Design: Emily Hiestand
Typography Refinements: Jon Sachs, Emily Hiestand, Ilavenil Subbiah
LANGUAGE
Op-Ed: MIT considers the humanistic fields essential. Here’s why.
This influential Op-ed, published in 2014, led to many positive developments:
The commentary led to invitations for Dean Deborah Fitzgerald to speak around the globe at universities eager to emulate the MIT model of integrating the Sci/Tech and Humanistic fields. Coming from MIT, the statement also helped U.S. colleges make the case for bolstering their own humanistic fields. The piece prompted ranking organizations to take a closer look at MIT’s humanistic fields; since then, the School has been ranked among the top universities worldwide. Finally, this commentary informed the Institute’s 21st C. narrative, providing ways to highlight the power of combining knowledge from the STEM and Humanistic realms. It was a privilege to collaborate with Dean Fitzgerald in shaping this commentary!
Excerpt
”At MIT we view the humanities, arts, and social sciences as essential, both for educating great citizens, engineers, scientists, and scholars, and for sustaining the Institute’s capacity for innovation.
Why? Because the Institute’s mission is to advance knowledge and educate students who are prepared to help solve the world’s most challenging problems – in energy, health care, transportation, and dozens of other fields. To do this, our graduates naturally need advanced technical knowledge and skills — the deep, original thinking about the physical universe that is the genius of the science and engineering fields. But the world’s problems are never tidily confined to the laboratory, workbench, or spreadsheet.
From climate change to poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale; and engineering and science issues are always embedded in broader human realities, from deeply-felt cultural traditions to building codes to political tensions. So our students also need an in-depth understanding of human complexities — the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence — as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences.”
Full Commentary
INFRASTRUCTURE
Strategy, Team, Collaboration
The director’s role included serving as a thought-partner to the School leadership, hiring/leading a small team, and creating the basic elements of a communication program: website, graphic identity, editorial and news program, collateral materials, social media platforms, exhibits, etc. A crucial element was collaboration with people and groups across the Institute so the School’s messages reflected collective intelligence. This was a joyful,15-year project with a great and innovative community.