The WBUR Festival 2025 at WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts Thursday, May 29, 2025.
(Photo by Nick Grace/Bolt Creative Group For WBUR)
Managing the visual integrity and future-proofing of a premier media brand.
The Challenge
A brand as large as WBUR — spanning daily news, podcasts, live events, and digital products — is constantly at risk of “brand drift.” The challenge is to maintain a standard of visual consistency across multiple internal teams and external.
The Strategy: “Systems over Rules”
I transitioned WBUR’s brand management from a static “set of rules” into a living, breathing ecosystem. By treating the style guide as an evolving framework, I focused on enablement: creating modular templates, clear typographic hierarchies, and accessible documentation. This empowers non-designers and partners to create high-quality, on-brand content autonomously, while I focus on the high-level evolution of the brand’s visual voice.
My Role
Brand Governance: Owns and maintains the WBUR Brand Style Guide, defining standards for color, motion, and illustration.
Strategic Growth: Proactively identifies gaps in the brand system and engineers new guidelines for emerging platforms and audiences.
Mentorship & Review: Serves as the lead visual gatekeeper, reviewing cross-departmental assets to ensure they meet WBUR’s high standards for clarity and character.
The Impact
By moving toward a “living system,” I significantly reduced review cycles and production bottlenecks. The result is a more resilient, contemporary brand identity that scales effortlessly across new initiatives while maintaining the trust and recognition WBUR has built over decades.