"Wearing all the hats" is somewhat of a cliche, but in a startup environment, your role is rarely limited to one discipline. During my three years at CreativeLive, I had a hand in practically every brand touch point, with a primary focus on digital, social and web. Below are some of my personal favorite projects from my time at CreativeLive, one of the most prominent live-streaming education platforms worldwide.
One of my major contributions to the brand was introducing illustration and hand-lettering as new visual tools to leverage alongside internal and user-generated photography assets. This is a random sampling of assets I provided to build out the company's asset library, representing all five channels (photography, design, craft, music, and business), as well as the brand voice. This expression was often brought into our email communication, some of which is sampled below. These executions highlighted CreativeLive instructors and their work, while keeping core text elements, buttons and symbols consistent for ease of navigation.
2016 Holiday Campaign
BRIEF: Concept and execute CreativeLive’s 2016 Holiday campaign. Art direct a holiday-specific branded photoshoot.
ROLE: Art Director, Lead Designer, Prop & Wardrobe Styling
SUMMARY: Based on the main campaign theme “Live Your Dreams,” I developed a shot list of scenarios that represented all types of creators: fashion designers, rappers, bloggers, and more. This was the first company campaign that was created with no stock imagery whatsoever, as we kept all photography, videography, and talent in-house, using our own creators (employees) as models. Many CreativeLive employees, including myself, spent their off-work hours pursuing their additional creative passions, and it was this detail that brought a new level of authenticity to our brand imagery. I collaborated with a team of 7 on this shoot, providing visual direction, prop and wardrobe styling, and improvised new shot directions when we faced logistical challenges. Together, we captured imagery and footage that featured very real people in real moments of the creative process.
Following the photoshoot, I collaborated with CreativeLive's post production team to roll out the visual assets for the entire holiday site-wide marketing campaign. The visual assets included emails, banner ads, social media graphics, and animated videos.
This campaign resulted in unprecedented revenue streams and increased traffic over the sale period, marking the highest ranking days of revenue in the history of the company.
Credits
Creative Director: Vasco Morelli
Art Director & Lead Designer: Rachel Frankel
Director: Jake Rossilli
Videographer: Daniel Petersen
Photographer: Casey Cosley
Producers: Liza Ruzer & Jaime Roberts
Marketing Page Refresh
BRIEF: Refresh the visual design and tone of voice across two core marketing pages on CreativeLive.com.
ROLE: Art Director, Lead Designer
SUMMARY: I was tasked with leading the visual design direction for three key marketing pages on CreativeLive’s website. I collaborated with our product team to bring an elevated look and feel to pages that hadn’t been redesigned in years, long before our rebranding.
Creative Director: Vasco Morelli
Art Director, Lead Designer & Illustrator: Rachel Frankel
Brand Manager: Danielle Elliott
UX Team: Matt Queen, James Butler, and Liza Petrova
Copywriter: Sarah Chun
About Page
My visual strategy behind the design execution for each page was to successfully combine powerful imagery, minimalism, and clarity in messaging—three key qualities of the company brand. The page opens with a focus on our unique differentiators: our signature instructors and our mission statement.
Drilling down the page further, the mission expands into more of a thorough manifesto. I wanted to imbue the word "champion" with additional meaning and context by showing actual CreativeLive students, instructors, and staff in a grid structure, which subtly reinforces the company logo. On the right, the history of the company is explored through a brief introduction as well as a playful illustrated timeline by yours truly, including some key events that have taken place over the years.
In Studio Page
CreativeLive's In Studio page is meant to be a hub for prospective or existing students who are interested in becoming a part of our in-studio audience. The page provides an up-to-date schedule of upcoming classes, availability to participate, and most importantly, the numerous reasons and benefits of physically participating in our community.
Instructors Page
CreativeLive's Instructors page highlights the impressive roster of industry experts that have taught on the company's platform. We chose to highlight a select few instructors for their compelling personal stories, paired with enthusiastic testimonials from students as proof points. The instructor highlights are followed by a working, searchable directory of all 650+ instructors.
