INFORMS publishes 16 highly-regarded, scholarly peer-reviewed journals, with content generally available on an individual or institutional subscription basis, or through purchasing individual articles.

Our flagship journals, Operations Research and Management Science have been published since the 1950s. We were tasked with making a cohesive suite of journals that still maintained their own identity. We tackled this project with a strong grid, use of color, and individual artworks. How else could you distinguish between Operations Research and Mathematics of Operations Research?

To emphasize the INFORMS brand and suite of journals, we began by creating a 5×5 vertical grid. We had the option to reveal or hide each of the 25 squares.

Next, we started with the INFORMS palette of blue, green, orange to establish the color for each journal. We tested the colors to ensure that all colors would complement each other regardless of location or combination.

We updated the journal name plates with one unified font, in that journal’s specified color.

We then worked with each of the Editors in Chief (EiC) of the journals to get their input to create an abstract piece of art to form the background of each cover. Getting applied mathematicians to imagine abstract art might have been the most challenging aspect of this project.

This redesign won Graphic Design USA award in 2019.

Decision Analysis

Focuses on advancing the theory, application, and teaching of all aspects of decision analysis.

The first step to arriving at a decision is to properly frame the content. We kept the green color for Decision Analysis, hung matching green fabric on the wall, and covered it with frames that we had purchased at thrift stores and painted the same green. We then hand wrote in different formulas that help with the analysis that would be familiar to the community.

 

Information Systems Research

Covers the latest theory, research, and intellectual development for information systems in organizations, institutions, the economy, and society.

We created this image with the idea of taking in information, processing it, and creating something new, better, and different with that information. The artwork describes the process of moving from a state of overload of inputs > processing > a result that makes the world a better place. This image was created digitally.

 

INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics

formerly Interfaces
Dedicated to improving the practical application of OR/MS to decisions and policies in today’s organizations and industries.

The direction provided to us by the Editor in Chief was to visualize the fact that math and computers solve problems that are too big to fit in peoples’ heads, so they get a better answer than people could devise just thinking about it. They wanted to demonstrate the breadth and real-world nature of the journal content, with art suggestions of DaVinci, the cotton gin, and Rube Goldberg.

 

INFORMS Journal on Computing

Contains topical and informative papers on the broad intersection of O.R. and computing.

This cover took us two tries, we thought we were extremely clever by translating the mission statement of the journal into binary code, which we associated to knitting pattern of knit=0, purl=1, to create the piece for the artwork. According to the EiC, we apparently missed the point, that we were too focused on the character encoding instead of the amplitude and phase graph we ultimately created with watercolors.

 

INFORMS Journal on Optimization

Contributes papers on optimization with particular emphasis on data-driven optimization, optimization methods in machine learning, and exciting real-world applications of optimization.​

This was a new journal, so we started from scratch. This was another cover where we went back to drawing board. We had initially taken a brain scan of the neural networks in action, thinking that the human brain was the ultimate in optimization. Our next pass focused on machine learning and created a non-repeating pattern that better conveys what is happening in the algorithms.

INFORMS Transactions on Education

INFORMS open access journal with the mission of advancing O.R., management science, and analytics education at all levels worldwide.

The EiC had suggested apples or trees to visualize the idea of growth that occurs in the classroom. We decided to focus on the idea of transformation, which happens with the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. This process of change and growth led to the idea of metamorphosis and butterflies. I had also watched a TEDtalk by Robert Lang on the intersection of math and origami. So the creative team made hundreds of butterflies and we hung them to give them movement and life, as the creative teachings are giving new ideas and inspiration to students.

Management Science

Scientifically addresses the problems, interests, and concerns of managers while promoting the science of managing private and public sector enterprises.

We decided to keep the color for this journal to honor its 65-year history. Inspired by an installation at the Baltimore Museum of Art by Tomás Saraceno, we thought about how lenses affect the way we see things. Depending on where you stood, you were able to view the piece in a different way, similarly, applying science to management can bring new optimized outcomes to light. To create the artwork, we photographed pieces of iridescent film that were attached to glass. We then layered them to give them dimensionality.

Manufacturing and Service Operations Management

Presents state-of-the-art research of interest to both academic and industry researchers and practitioners working at the interface of research and implementation.

Working with the EiC, we decided to layer two abstract concepts, one being the supply chain network, which was created with cut paper, and the second being the flow of information, highlighted by superimposed arrows that depict processes, flows, or steps in the workflow.

Marketing Science

Addresses current questions in marketing and introduces cutting-edge research as well as new insights and approaches to current marketing-related problems.

This transformation was the most challenging yielding the least change between the original and the update, but in the end the client was satisfied.

Mathematics of Operations Research

Publishes excellent foundational studies with significant mathematical content and relevance to OR/MS.

When asked about the difference between Operations Research and Mathematics of Operations Research (MOR), we were told, “Both use algorithms to solve many complex societal problems. They both accept papers that have novelty in problem formation and of solution methodology. MOR weighs in on the latter.” We took one of the classic O.R. problems, the Traveling Salesman Problem (or TSP), and used the nodes and the path to create the image.

Operations Research

Presents high-quality papers that represent the true breadth of the methodologies and applications that define O.R.

The EiC mentioned Tetris for an image inspiration, which made us think of an Ellsworth Kelly piece, made up of squares that went from less dense to more dense. We wanted to show a journey from chaos to order, so the medium, LEGO, were laid out from a loose random pattern, to a tighter more coherent mass. We also blurred the image from left to right to further express the idea of increasing clarity and organization. As our oldest journal, we also wanted to incorporate a bit of nostalgia; many of our members are engineers who might have been inspired at the beginning of their careers by LEGO. (Use of LEGO was approved, and in no way endorsed by them.)

Organization Science

Covers groundbreaking research about organizations, including their processes, structures, technologies, identities, capabilities, forms, and performance.

For this cover, we focused on the idea of organizational structures, along with behavior operations management, and a healthy dose of psychology. Once we decided on a color palette, we folded a piece of canvas in half, using a stamp made of honeycomb to represent the structure and nature of organizations, we made impressions on one side of the canvas, pressed one side on the other to create “Rorschach” inkblots that emphasize the human nature and effect on the organization.

Service Science

Covers state-of-the-art research, education, practice, and breakthroughs in the service science that focus on people’s satisfaction and success.

We took the idea of connections within service and started with a background that implies a fingerprint to highlight both the people that make the processes better and the idea of service as a whole. We then worked some representative icons into the swirls, so we can give some idea of the breadth and scope of topics that the journal covers.

Stochastic Systems

Delivers high-quality papers that substantively contribute to the modeling, analysis, and control of stochastic systems.

Stochastic Systems was another journal where our first idea was not a success. We had focused on the idea of randomness, and crowdsourced the artwork; we divided the canvas into squares, and numbered each of them; INFORMS Staff members were asked to select 10 numbers from 1-475. The numbers were tallied to see how many responses each, and assigned a percentage of the Pantone color to fill the square. Perhaps too simplistic, so we dove into the concept of deep neural networks, and a representation of them. We took nails and created the 10 starting, middle, and end points using embroidery floss to map the possibilities of solutions.

Strategy Science

Disseminates outstanding research directed to the challenges of strategic management in both business and nonbusiness organizations.

This is one of INFORMS newer journals, so we took the original concept of an abstract chess board behind a compass, and emphasized focus on the idea of strategy.

Transportation Science

Features comprehensive timely articles and surveys that cover all modes of transportation, present and prospective, and researches planning and design issues.

For this cover, we wanted to emphasize the idea of motion. It incorporates the idea of a kaleidoscope, which needs a person to use it to to produce results, to highlight all of the incredible work and research that is being done. Individual icons show the myriad of transportation modes that could benefit from this work.

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