Making the future of neurosurgery visible

About SEISMIC

SEISMIC is a European research consortium working to make brain surgery safer, more precise and less invasive. Bringing together leading hospitals, research institutions and technology partners, the project explores how advanced imaging and minimally invasive techniques can transform the treatment of brain bleeds and brain tumors.

Working closely with the team behind SEISMIC, we translated this complex and ambitious research project into a clear digital identity and website — from strategy and branding to web design and Webflow development.

The challenge

As a funded European research project, SEISMIC needed a central platform where its work, ambitions and progress could be communicated openly throughout the project.

SEISMIC is a complex research consortium involving different organisations, disciplines and stakeholders. The website needed to explain what SEISMIC is, why the research matters and what the consortium is working towards — without requiring visitors to have a scientific or medical background.

At the same time, the visual identity needed to reflect the innovative and highly technical nature of the project while still feeling accessible and human.

Our challenge was therefore not simply to build a website. We first needed to understand SEISMIC well enough to translate it into a clear story, identity and digital experience.

Starting with strategy

Before opening Figma, we started by talking to the people behind SEISMIC.

Through discovery sessions with the different stakeholders involved in the project, we explored what SEISMIC stands for, what the consortium wants to achieve and who needs to use the website.

These conversations helped us understand the different audiences and the information each of them would be looking for.

From there, we translated everything we learned into a strategy and sitemap that determined what information needed to be communicated and how visitors should move through the website.

From sitemap to wireframes

With the website architecture in place, we moved into wireframing.

The goal was to make a technically complex story easy to understand. Instead of starting with visual design, we first focused entirely on hierarchy, content and user flow.

What does someone need to understand about SEISMIC first? How do we explain the research? Where do the consortium partners fit into that story? And how can visitors follow the project as it develops?

Answering these questions at the wireframe stage gave us a clear foundation for both the copy and the eventual visual design.

Creating an identity for SEISMIC

With the strategy and structure established, we created a compact brand identity specifically for the project.

The identity needed to feel appropriate for a major European medical research initiative without becoming overly clinical or institutional.

We developed a visual direction that could represent the scientific and technological nature of SEISMIC while giving the project a distinctive and recognisable identity of its own.

This mini brand system became the visual foundation for the entire website.

Bringing the story to life through web design

Once the wireframes and visual direction had been approved, we brought the two together in the final web design.

Rather than simply presenting large amounts of research information, we used layout, typography, imagery and interaction to create a website that helps visitors understand the story behind SEISMIC.

The design gives the technology and research room to speak for itself while making complex information easier to explore.

Throughout the process, we worked in clear phases with stakeholder approval at each major milestone. This allowed us to move from strategy to structure, branding and final design without losing alignment between the different parties involved in the consortium.

Building the website in Webflow

After approval of the complete design, we moved into development.

We built the website in Webflow, creating a flexible foundation that the SEISMIC team can continue to use as the research project develops over the coming years.

Performance was an important part of the build. We kept the website lightweight and fast while still incorporating motion and interaction throughout the experience.

Using GSAP alongside Webflow allowed us to introduce animations that help bring the technology and story to life without compromising usability or performance.

The result is a fast, responsive and scalable website designed to evolve together with the SEISMIC project.

The result

SEISMIC now has a central digital platform that brings its research, consortium and ambitions together in one place.

What started as a complex story involving medical research, advanced technology and multiple stakeholders has been translated into a clear digital experience that makes the project easier to understand and follow.

More importantly, the website provides SEISMIC with a foundation for the years ahead — a place where the consortium can share its progress, communicate new developments and show how its research is contributing to the future of neurosurgery.