From the Nominator

"UCSF Magazine is a flagship publication for the University of California, San Francisco. Published in print and online twice a year, our target audience comprises alumni, grateful patients, and faculty members. Its mission is to engage alumni and donors by advancing their understanding of biomedical sciences, human health, and health care. Our audiences want accessible, but not overly dumbed-down science, and they want information that they can trust about their own health. For this entry, we are submitting the summer 2021 issue (print) and the winter 2021 issue (online).  

We design UCSF Magazine to meet the expectations and needs of our audiences. The visual designs aim for a modern look and feel more akin to contemporary magazines, with a focus on human stories, technology, and science than those in the institutional or healthcare realm. UCSF also has a strong proprietary brand that the magazine reflects to further communicate the entire university’s visual language.    

The core message we aim to convey about the university through design is our extraordinary preeminence in the health sciences and the trailblazing qualities of our alumni, physician-scientists, and educators. We highlight this with bold, confident portraiture; mesmerizing and provoking artwork; and call outs, illustrations, and infographics that convey innovation, excellence, and expertise to even the most casual reader. And we do this for both the print and online versions of the magazine in an attempt with the latter to expand our reach to a broader audience of science- and health-curious readers."

From the Judges

Great use of high-impact imagery and color throughout. Excellent illustrations tailored to content. The Case of the Recurring Fever is fun, COVID/immune system is polished, and race in medicine story has great annotations. The online issue keeps the reader engaged with beautiful images/video at just the right frequency. The print magazine is provocative and brings the reader into the story.