Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Institute
Houston Methodist DeBakey Institute Medical Journal and Identity MastheadCREATIVE DIRECTION + STRATEGY
Amilia RamirezIDENTITY, MASTHEAD
Amilia RamirezPUBLICATION DESIGN
Amilia RamirezThe Houston Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Institute partnered with Amilia’s consultancy lab, to reimagine, redesign, and reintroduce their medical journal to the vast network of industry physicians, doctors, and medical professionals with the goal to support their further education and provide opportunities to improve their medical practices.
Publication Identity, Masthead
The Approach
The higher quality a medical journal is to experience, the more a physician’s practice benefits from its content–
The more the physicians’ practice benefit, the more the patients’ health and wellbeing benefit–
The more the patients benefit, the more families, friends, neighbors, communities, and lives overall improve–
This is always the goal.
The Previous Journal Iteration
New Journal Relaunch
The Strategy
The journal faced unique challenges.
During the discovery phase, we found that while the journal was targeted toward physicians and medical professionals across the globe, many received upwards of 40+ similar journals each month, rendering the time accessible to explore the contents of the pages subject to very limited time, or cut altogether from consideration.
The solution was to design a journal that stands-out, was a delight-to-read, and echoed the standards Methodist brought as an esteemed brand so that the physicians and benefiting-readers engaging in the journal would nourish their practice comfortably under the confidence and security of Houston Methodist’s helm.
These goals were accomplished through careful consideration of nuanced psychology-driven design decisions – solving for questions ranging from “what color strategy will improve the comfort and speed of the reader?” to “what paper stock choices can be made that offers the reader a tactile companion while processing information, while also being an easy and quick read to thumb through?”
Stand Out
Amongst the other 40+ monthly journals landing on the desks of the readers, The Methodist DeBakay Cardiovascular Journal was specifically engineered to stand out through distinct contrast graphic design decisions, bespoke image usage, and clear respect to the reader’s comfort and need for efficiency — other journals did not always consider these conditions in their designs, making this design stand out even further.
Delight-To-Read
Negative space was strategically used to offer the reader multiple opportunities to rest their eye while they peruse the journal. True black was never used and rather replaced with the same deep grey we see when eyelids are closed. This minor detail provided another opportunity to optimize and respect the reader’s mental space by offering a softer, psychologically-familiar font color use, allowing the mind to process less and therefore quicker.
Esteemed Standards
The quality of the journal was designed to reflect the quality Houston Methodist brings to each patient, their team, and their impact on the population throughout the generations.
Dr. DeBakey, whom the journal and institution shares his namesake, pioneered several key breakthroughs in the heart and vascular space. The journal, by extension, was designed to echo the same standard by pushing the limits and expectations a medical journal can offer, and improve the experience for each reader — hence the nuanced care and detail of the creative strategy decisions.
Results
A strategically competitive journal was created that experientially bypassed the status quo of existing institution-level journals. A resource was successfully designed on behalf of the readers with human-level attention to nuance and decisions made that effectively influence those important micro-moments that compound to make a difference. The end-product, by design, successfully echoed the quality of practice Houston Methodist provides for their patients, their team, and their physicians.
The journal is still in use to this day since this project’s development in 2017.
CHALLENGES
METHOD
SOLUTION
OUTCOME
Personal Take-Away
While not cardiovascular-related, my father underwent a major life-saving transplant surgery at Houston Methodist only months before the project kickoff. The journal was also one of the first accounts my consultancy fulfilled at the company’s inception around the same time.
When the opportunity to give back to Houston Methodist arrived, it was sudden and on my list of personal achievements I did not expect to happen so quick. I worked on this project proud and determined to create something notably exceptional, with the hope that the micro benefits engineered into the project would bring macro benefits to the physicians’ practice, thus benefiting the patients’ and their families.
I believe that:
The more projects like these succeed, the more families, friends, neighbors, communities, and lives overall improve–
This is always the goal.