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Meridian

An editorial-first website for a research institute with a lot to say.

Web Design

Branding

Branding

Industry

Academic research

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Challenge

Meridian published serious research and buried it in a site built for a brochure. Papers sat four clicks deep, the newsroom was a list of PDFs, and the institute’s best thinking reached almost nobody outside the people who already knew where to look.

Strategy

We started with the archive, not the homepage. Every piece of Meridian’s output was mapped, typed and given somewhere to live, so the editorial system could carry twenty years of back catalogue and whatever gets published next Tuesday. Only then did we design what it looks like.

Strategy

We started with the archive, not the homepage. Every piece of Meridian’s output was mapped, typed and given somewhere to live, so the editorial system could carry twenty years of back catalogue and whatever gets published next Tuesday. Only then did we design what it looks like.

Website

A twelve-column grid, one serif and one grotesk, and templates that make a two-thousand-word paper and a three-line note feel like they belong to the same institution. The CMS is structured tightly enough that the comms team publishes without a developer, and loose enough that it will still fit in five years.

Website

A twelve-column grid, one serif and one grotesk, and templates that make a two-thousand-word paper and a three-line note feel like they belong to the same institution. The CMS is structured tightly enough that the comms team publishes without a developer, and loose enough that it will still fit in five years.

Outcome

Time on page more than doubled and organic traffic to research pages rose 140% in six months. The comms team publishes daily now instead of monthly, and the institute’s work is being cited in places it previously never reached.

Outcome

Time on page more than doubled and organic traffic to research pages rose 140% in six months. The comms team publishes daily now instead of monthly, and the institute’s work is being cited in places it previously never reached.

Curved balconies of a multi-storey library filled with books
Close-up of the fanned pages of an open book, in black and white
Printed research papers scattered across a desk with highlighter marks
Newspapers including the Wall Street Journal on a display rack, in black and white
A row of bound legal journals on a shelf
A dense spread of second-hand books laid out on a market table
A library aisle lined floor to ceiling with books
Curved balconies of a multi-storey library filled with books
Close-up of the fanned pages of an open book, in black and white
Printed research papers scattered across a desk with highlighter marks
Newspapers including the Wall Street Journal on a display rack, in black and white
A row of bound legal journals on a shelf
A dense spread of second-hand books laid out on a market table

The result

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Organic research traffic

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Time on page

Next case

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Next case

Kite

A woman in a white shirt shielding her eyes while leaning against a wall

Next case

Kite

A woman in a white shirt shielding her eyes while leaning against a wall

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