SMART-map is a coordination and support action financed by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme. Its goal is to co-design and implement concrete roadmaps for the responsible development of technologies and services in three key game-changing fields: precision medicine, synthetic biology and 3D printing in biomedicine. 

The project involves industries, research institutions, universities, societal actors and organizations from Germany, Denmark, UK, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary and several other countries.

I was asked by formicablu, the consortium partner in charge with the communication activities, to design all the visual identity of the project along with all the main graphic material for both printed and digital purposes. 

The key challenges of this extensive work lied basically in two very different, yet very connected, areas: the visual language and the complexity of the project structure. 

On one hand the European roots tend to force the visual design towards very predictable and repetitive outputs. On the other hand a very concrete set of functional requirements are needed, as nine different organizations from eight different countries must collaborate intensely, both online and offline.

Designing on the edge of aesthetic audacity and functional rigor was key to come up with a solution that can be memorable but also extremely effective when applied to all the communication elements and project tools.

The SMART-map logo celebrates the interconnections, the hybridizations and the dialogues between different scientific fields, societal actors, countries and innovation practices.

The goal of the design was creating a brand identity that can be divided in 3 different, yet coherent, visual languages for each project field

A 'long-scroll' homepage presents through multiple sections the most important informations about the project.

The navigation between the inner pages and the different sections of the homepage are enabled by 2 different menus: a common horizontal one at the top of the page and a vertical one on the side

 

 

The SMART-map website is structured with four different page types: the homepage with “scroll to” sections, the project pages with custom illustrations for each project topic, and internal page with hero header and a basic internal page. Throughout the website are present interchangeable interactive elements, custom designed, such as the newsfeed column, the project calendar, and the project map.