Member Engagement Print System
Print, branding, systemsThe MIT Media Lab is funded through a consortium of member companies who support the Lab's research in exchange for early access to emerging intellectual property. Maintaining those relationships is central to the Lab's ability to operate, particularly at a moment when so much research funding is under pressure. For a long time, the print materials used in member engagement were functional but undistinguished, nothing that matched the distinctiveness of the Lab's identity or the caliber of the work being shared.
The challenge of redesigning them was a specific one: in an environment where research groups form, evolve, and dissolve continuously, any print system has to be flexible or it becomes obsolete almost immediately. The goal was to create what we came to call evergreen materials, a system that could be reprinted in small runs, mixed and matched for different audiences, and updated without requiring a wholesale redesign.
The resulting system is built around a 9x9 inch folder, a form factor that nods to the Lab's 7x7 grid and immediately distinguishes itself from a standard 8.5x11 presentation. One pocket runs vertically, the other horizontally, allowing inserts to be configured differently depending on which research areas are most relevant to a given member company. The inserts themselves take the form of booklets, Z-folds, and gatefolds, all printed on HP Indigo in short runs of 250 to 500 at a time, on Accent 100% post-consumer recycled opaque paper. The system accommodates the full range of Lab entities and was the first implementation of the new Media Lab color system.
+ Design: Olivia Verdugo
+ Printing + shell fabrication: Puritan Press
© 2026 Olivia S Verdugo