Brand, website, and a visual system for a computational genomics center

UCGD brand and visual system collage

Project Overview

The Utah Center for Genetic Discovery (UCGD) unites computational genomics, software engineering, and translational medicine at the University of Utah. A dense, technical mission needed an identity and a website that make genomic discovery feel human.

Approach

The brand came together and carried across apparel and environment. The website was designed and structured around the center’s two arms. An illustration and icon system tied it together. And the science itself was mapped into clear workflow diagrams, showing how a patient becomes a discovery.

The identity

A mark built from Utah’s peaks and a colorful UCGD monogram.

UCGD branded items — logo, apparel, and drinkware UCGD office with etched-glass branding
  • Red #C02036 C0 M83 Y72 K25
  • Blue #1D9AD6 C86 M28 Y0 K16
  • Green #86A63F C19 M0 Y62 K35
  • Violet #A66AAC C3 M38 Y0 K33
  • Beige #E1DED5 C0 M1 Y5 K12
  • Gray #E2E6E6 C2 M0 Y0 K10
Montserrat
Aa
Genomic discovery, made human. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789

Website design, organized around the science

The site is organized around the center’s two arms. One is the academic research initiative, the other the fee-for-service core facility. Together they turn a state investment into a clinical reality.

UCGD homepage design UCGD about page design

Illustrating a complex field

Watercolor-style illustrations that bring warmth and story to chromosomes, inheritance, and gene networks.

UCGD illustration — chromosomes
The Human Genome Project. Charting the human genome, chromosome by chromosome.
UCGD illustration — inheritance
BEDTools. The Utah-built toolset for genome arithmetic.
UCGD illustration — gene network
VAAST and PHEVOR. From patient phenotype to the responsible gene.

Icon set

A few of the rounded icons built for the center’s clinical and research touchpoints, plus a simple visual language for sequence alignment and disease-gene analysis.

UCGD icon set Sequence alignment and disease-gene analysis diagram

Making the pipeline legible

Two diagrams that make a complex research process legible, from expanding a disease cohort to tracing a single patient’s sample all the way to a genetic discovery.

Cohort expansion workflow
Cohort expansion. Growing a rare-disease cohort by matching Utah phenotype data against a partner biobank.
Patient-to-gene discovery workflow
Patient-to-gene discovery. The eight-step path from sample collection through sequencing, analysis, and return of results.