Cancer Research UK

Non-profits

Publishing Pioneering Research.

We’ve worked with Cancer Research UK to completely overhaul the visual operating system used in research publications.

SomeOne redesiged every aspect of the BrandWorld to help Cancer Research UK better curate and display content.

Now the new work is rolling out to communicate more clearly to a science savvy audience on the front line of cancer research.

A total design shift

Each year Cancer Research UK publishes a globally distributed set of researcher publications that brings together a curated showcase of the most important stories within the industry.

After the redesign, the publications now features interviews with top scientists, a wealth of statistics that SomeOne has translated into a comprehensive suite of infographics and scientific illustrations all wrapped up in a carefully considered editorial package.

SomeOne’s Senior Designer on the project, Thomas Dabner comments, ‘With more than 4,000 researchers in their worldwide network, publishing hundreds of thousands of ground breaking pieces of scientific research, Cancer Research UK is a tour de force of insight when it comes to beating Cancer.’

Articles now have the gravitas of a story you’d expect to see in New Scientist — with a new smart design system that can accommodate long form stories or break down detail into easily consumed chunks for an audience that is time poor and fact rich.

All scientific illustrations now follow a newly developed Cancer Research UK style while remaining true to their scientific meaning and bespoke 3D imagery takes the reader inside Cancer cells.

Tom DabnerLead Designer, SomeOne

Full visual operating system

Alongside the core Science brand work, also created by SomeOne, new photographic assets play a significant role throughout the publications.

Cancer Research UK boasts some extremely talented scientists. Tomas Lindahl for example, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Chemistry along with Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar.

A new approach helped move scientist profiles to sharp, heroic portraits that mirror the importance and stature of the insights that accompany them.

Innovative digital data mapping artworks

The design team at SomeOne tapped commissioned renowned Data Artist, Brendan Dawes to reimagine the thousands of research paper collaborations between scientists globally from 2015–16.

Feeding the data into his bespoke data systems he developed a unique graphic interpretation that demonstrates the level of work that is going into the endeavour to beat cancer sooner.

The beautifully complex piece forms the front and back cover image and can also be downloaded in poster form at the Cancer Research UK website.

130,000+
Data points, referencing published papers, making up the cover visualisation

The whole publication made me feel inspired and glad to be a researcher. The tone is just right, you can tell it’s designed to speak to scientists.

Cancer Research Fellows