Desk Reference

The Desk Reference is one of the largest and most thorough educational publications that BlackRock produces. For 2015, the Desk Reference guides expanded to three separate publications: the ETF guide, RIA guide, and the all new UCITS guide. Functioning as a custom direct mailing piece, it is one of the biggest marketing drivers of sales leads for all institutional channels.

Success of the Desk Reference was measured in a reduced cost and shorter production duration, a larger audience reach, and a strategized approach for targeting higher quality leads. All markers were met and surpassed with excellent feedback across the firm and clients.

ROLE —
Art Direction, Print Design, & Interaction Design

CLIENT —
BlackRock, Inc., iShares

Print Techniques

The design of the Desk Reference is a huge value-add for clients and the sales team. Clients keep it on their desk, carry it to meetings, and cite it as a brand differentiator. I created three publications that share a distinct and dynamic graphic on three contrasting backgrounds. The cover graphics were printed in process and spot layers, used scuff-resistant matte to protect the publication, and included embossed titles.  The final touch was a foil stamp on select portions of the graphic to add a subtle and elegant shimmer.

CONTENT PAGES & TABS

E-Book Guides

Each guide was translated into a digital publication, with animation, clickable links, and a custom navigation experience. I worked with the vendor to create a navigation that would simplify the experience for such a dense publication. We combined the table of contents with the tabs so that a mouse hover over each tab would reveal the main content headers of each section. To aid in the digestability of the publication content, we animated key graphics throughout the guide.

Survey Business Reply Cards (BRC)

The final piece of this campaign I designed was a survey BRC accompanying each Desk Reference guide. There were seven different surveys created for each of the seven unique target audiences.

NEXT UP

Tribeca Private Screening 

Brand, Design, Photography, & Print Production