McKesson

The Power for Better Data

Building a cohesive, seamless, and dynamic brand identity for a quantum leap in healthcare data analysis and coordination

Project
Fuse Launch Identity System

Medium
Integrated Product Branding

Agencies
EPAM (San Francisco) - Voice Refinement
Acclaro (Atlanta) - Expo Booth

Roles
Design Direction
Brand Strategy
Identity Design
Visual Design
Verbal Strategy & Tagline

Year
2017

Objective
As McKesson prepared to introduce Fuse, a next-generation healthcare data platform, the challenge was to build a product brand that inspired confidence and collaboration within a fragmented industry. Beyond communicating functionality, the goal was to define a clear sense of purpose, positioning Fuse as both a catalyst for innovation and a trusted connector of data across the healthcare ecosystem.

Solution
We positioned Fuse not as a product, but as an intelligent, future-focused partner dedicated to advancing data integrity across the healthcare continuum. The strategy centered on building a brand experience—visually and verbally—that embodied its core philosophy and could flex across audiences and channels, connecting complex systems with the patient outcomes they enable. Debuting at the 2017 HIMSS conference, the brand demonstrated strong market resonance and positioned Fuse for lasting growth.

Finding Fuse

While exploring potential names for Fuse, we created a series of mood boards to capture the brand’s emotive and strategic territory, drawing from physics, biology, music, art, and architecture. Across these disparate fields, one visual kept appearing: the hexagon. At first, it seemed incidental. But as the pattern persisted, it became impossible to ignore.

The hexagon is nature’s shorthand for efficiency, found in everything from honeycombs to carbon molecules to planetary storms. In his book, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, Michael S. Schneider wrote, “Hexagons contain a message that efficient structure, function, and order are happening.” That insight resonated deeply, perfectly aligning with Fuse’s brand promise: clarity, connection, and purposeful design.

That recognition of visual symbolism and brand relevance, where form met meaning, became the catalyst for the brand’s identity system, anchoring the logo and visual language in a shape that had been hiding in plain sight all along.

Discovery & Construction

The hexagon, chosen as the core of the logo's design, revealed more than structural beauty—it offered a modular system grounded in proportional geometry, capable of expressing balance, hierarchy, and flow. To ensure this form aligned with Fuse's mission of data harmony across clinical networks, we drew from another recurring symbol in our early explorations: the yin-yang. Its emphasis on duality and equilibrium became a guiding influence, reinforcing Fuse's role as a connector of complex, interdependent health systems

Logo Typography

After exploring numerous type options, Biome by Carl Crossgrove emerged as the foundation for the wordmark. Its polished, futuristic form—with subtle humanistic curves—offered the perfect counterbalance to the logomark’s strong geometry. The resulting wordmark created visual equilibrium while nodding to Fuse’s connection to patient care, grounding the brand in both precision and warmth.

Color Palette

One of the primary ways we linked the Fuse identity to the parent McKesson/RelayHealth brand was through color. We adopted most of the original palette, augmenting it with new tints, shades, and an additional color, aqua. The expanded palette enabled greater emotional nuance and flexibility across brand touchpoints.

Fuse Logo System

To reinforce Fuse’s strategic positioning and enhance the customer experience, we developed a modular logo system built around its four core capabilities: interoperability, storage, scalability, and health data curation. Each variant uses color as a functional signifier, helping users quickly identify and navigate platform features across complex healthcare environments. The system includes versions for light and dark contexts, including a tinted utility set designed for data visualizations and interface elements—supporting brand presence in a more embedded, context-aware way.

Typography

As a data platform, Fuse required typography optimized for user interfaces and scalable across contexts. With this in mind, I researched fonts that would render well at all scales, from mobile screens to billboards. Noto Sans—designed by Google in collaboration with Monotype—offered a clean, humanist structure and an expansive, multi-lingual character set that ensured clarity, accessibility, and global usability.

Feature Set Patterns

Extending the visual system around the Fuse feature set, we developed a series of five abstract patterns, each aligned to a core product capability, alongside one representing the platform as a whole. Drawing from the same hexagonal deconstruction used in the logo, we expanded the grid into a deeper tessellation framework inspired by the natural symmetry of snowflake formation. This approach enabled us to create a modular set of seamless, scalable patterns. Each pattern was paired with a signature hue, enhancing recognition across both digital and physical environments..

Imagery

To support Fuse’s positioning as a future-focused, data-driven platform, we developed a vibrant, expressive, and symbolic imagery system. Rather than relying on literal visuals, the system uses metaphor to communicate tone and functional promise, with each image reflecting its core brand attributes—speed, security, interconnectivity, and clarity—reinforcing Fuse’s role as a trusted partner for healthcare data integrity.

The Fuse Brand Guide

To ensure consistency across all applications, we created a comprehensive 42-page guide detailing how to build brand-aligned Fuse experiences. In addition to visual identity standards, the guide included clear guidance on voice and tone, preferred terminology, and editorial style—providing partners, vendors, and internal teams with the tools to communicate the brand effectively and cohesively.

“Chip was purposeful about all the aspects of the [Fuse] brand—he was careful, thoughtful, and inspired. He forged the brand experience into one that resonated with our target market.”

Cynthia Pols
Former Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
McKesson Provider Technologies

Brand Activation

The Fuse Dashboard

In tandem with the brand identity development, I worked closely with the RelayHealth applications team as a brand advisor. By providing insight into the use of color, typography, and iconography, we established a comprehensive design system that became the foundation for the Fuse dashboard interface, ensuring the product cohesively reflected the brand experience.

The Fuse Booth for HIMSS 2017

The Fuse booth was designed as a vibrant, relaxing oasis amidst the informational overload of the HIMSS convention floor. Like a destination lounge, the booth invited conversation and connection, complete with a hospitality bar where visitors could meet with the sales team and guest clients. At its center, a video-enabled canopy played cinematic visuals and customer stories, highlighting RelayHealth’s vision for data-driven healthcare and the Fuse platform’s role within it. It also featured brand storytelling visuals, including the Fuse Launch video.

Previsualization renderings (courtesy of Acclaro)

Snapshots from HIMSS 2017

Outcome

Fuse launched as a brand built for trust with clarity, scalability, and distinctiveness. From logotype to dashboard, every element reflected a unified mission: bringing order to healthcare’s data chaos. The system elevated McKesson’s innovation story while giving Fuse the independence to thrive on its own terms.