Microsoft — Matt Sanderson

Microsoft research

I was the first solo in-house graphic designer on the Microsoft Research Outreach team. This gave me the opportunity to develop some of the most impactful graphics and visuals of my career thus far. Being a designer on the team consisted of developing and creating multiple brand identities as well as promotional assets for upcoming conferences, series, blogs, websites, newsletters, and many more mediums. Ultimately, I was brought onto the team to effectively translate research into representative, accessible graphics that were on-brand and visually engaging.

Research Focus

I conceptualized and developed the brand identity for Microsoft’s Research Focus series. Following the launch of the weekly series, I was responsible for creating all promotional assets such as Instagram carousels, scrolling GIF animations, and website banners.

Webpage banners

Edition volumes

Scrolling animation

Microsoft Research Podcast

I rebranded the identity of Microsoft Research’s Podcast series to correspond with the company’s brand guidelines while appropriately representing their research community. I designed all the marketing assets, which included image cards, sound wave animations, and promotional GIFs for each episode.

Podcast branding / identity

Promotional Gif animations

Microsoft Research Blog

I collaborated with researchers, writers, and marketing managers to develop images, illustrations, animations, and videos. These visuals needed to adhere to Microsoft Research’s brand and accessibility guidelines while also representing each blog visually in a compelling way. I was also responsible for resizing these assets for use across Microsoft Research’s various social channels.

Promotional placements

Illustrations

Diagrams / charts

Collages

Animations

Microsoft Research Summit

I designed several forms of digital collateral to promote Microsoft Research’s first ever annual Research Summit 2021 and subsequent 2022 event. This consisted of creating speaker cards, website banners, promotional teaser graphics, animations, and informative schedules for our viewers.

Promotional speaker / presenter cards

Promotional branding

Dimensional identity assets

Social assets

Geometric tile identity

Research summit webpage

Branded presentations

AdaTest animation

I worked with Senior Researcher Scott Lundberg to create a 2-minute animation describing an open source tool, called AdaTest, that finds and fixes bugs in natural language processing (NLP) systems. I did all visual direction, animating, storyboarding, and piecing together of all components to finalize the video.

Storyboard

Race and Technology Series

I sketched, presented, and designed an identity system to symbolize Microsoft Research’s Race and Technology series, and created branded promotional assets to promote the series for each episode.

Speakers / presenters

Branded lectures

Promotional speaker assets

Branded teaser animation

Nelson Farm animation

I worked with researchers to create a 2-minute animation for a presentation at the 2021 Research Summit. By designing this visual demonstration, I provided the audience with a better understanding of how the researchers incorporated AI into farming to obtain the most efficient results.

Storyboard

Microsoft Research Webinar Series

I worked with a project coordinator to design branded speaker assets of all size placements. The assets were used to promote upcoming webinar episodes both internally and externally. The final copy of each episode was supplied to me, and I was tasked with cutting out each speaker’s headshot and designing on-brand templatized assets of numerous sizes.