WBUR partnered with MassArt’s Professional Freelance Studio program to create a limited-edition tote bag that features work from a new up-and-coming Boston artist every year. Working alongside professor Irena Roman, we provided art direction and weekly feedback for the artists to interpret the station’s signature sound from their creative points of view.
Caroline Barlow‘s illustration was chosen for the WBUR x MassArt Illustration project. Their WBUR Skyline design is full of movement and energy, showing a new listener’s appreciation for public radio’s place in the world — and WBUR’s place in Boston.
For more information about the Illustration department, including student work, departmental events, and student, alumni, faculty recognition, visit Drawn Onward: blogs.massart.edu/illustration
WBUR’s spring ad campaign launched on April 29th inspired by my lettering and headphone / earbud illustration art for the Membership team’s spring fundraising campaign.
The summer marketing campaign was multi-channel, appearing everywhere from highway billboards to news websites — via digital programmatic placements and core outlets like The Boston Globe.
summer 2021 campaignsummer 2021 campaignWBUR podcast promotional art
Whenever the opportunity to work cross-functionally opens up – and with time permitting – I make myself available. It’s a great chance to work with colleagues I normally wouldn’t work with and it’s always fun to work on new projects to stretch my creative brain.
My latest work collaboration with Project Citrus at WBUR, which explores the future of on-demand audio and emerging platforms, involved creating design assets for a voice-activated Massachusetts voter guide. It’s a companion to WBUR’s explanatory coverage on statewide ballot questions in the 2020 election.
“Thanks to some crackerjack design work, we were also able to incorporate a colorful image card for the skill, which appears on devices with a screen.” (Read more)
The deliverables included image cards and graphics for the Alexa skill icon.
It was great to see all the different parts of the organization – editorial, tech and design – come together for this valuable resource. It’s currently available on Alexa-enabled devices.
The WBUR face mask has been a wildly popular premium this season.
It was truly a station-wide effort to bring the face mask to life. There were so many design concepts flying back and forth – well over a dozen designs – but they just didn’t resonate. And then, at the eleventh hour, an editor came up with the winning idea, “We’ve got you covered.”
The WBUR face mask is a subtle reminder that we’ve got all of your news, culture, and facial-barrier needs covered. This reusable mask features adjustable elastic ear loops, a flexible nose clip, and a filter pocket (filter not included). It is washable and made of three layers of 100% cotton. Nose and chin darts create a contoured fit to keep the mask off your mouth for added breathability. (This mask is not medical grade and is for personal use only.)
It’s a great mask – super comfortable and has the DNA of WBUR written all over it.
Partnering with members of marketing and digital teams, we worked together on an extension of WBUR’s 2020 on-air and digital election coverage, “Mass. Election Prep.” The goal is to get people ready to vote in just 7 days.
We met up on a video call and discussed:
design direction for colors and graphic elements like stars and highlighting the state of Massachusetts
things to avoid, especially people
the various digital and prints assets, such as web banners, e-mail newsletter and print ads
leaving room for language translation as needed for our partner in the project
and, of course, the tight turnaround
I’m really happy with the way the piece came together. The illustration of the state and transforming it into a ballot box came together as I was working on brainstorming sketches.
What was also great about the project was being able to work cross-functionally. When I get an opportunity to work with a new group – with time permitting, of course – I jump at the chance. It’s a great way to meet / get to know colleagues and new projects help to stretch the creative muscles.
WBUR celebrated Mother’s Day this year with something unique – a public radio audio card featuring heartwarming, sincere and funny messages from some of our favorite hosts from WBUR and NPR.
Our annual Mother’s Day flower campaign was interrupted due to the pandemic. As we shared alternative ideas for contactless gifts, audio cards stood out from the pack.
Round One
The initial landing page featured only one call-to-action – “send card.” Site limitations initially made it challenging to have more than one.
This first iteration brought the user to the pledge page where they could make their donation amount and choose an audio card. From there, they could listen to a sample of the clip in the product description, but it was an extra step that needed to be made in order to preview the message.
Round Two
Coming up with a workaround solution, a “preview clip” was implemented as a secondary call-to-action for a more user-friendly experience. No additional steps were needed in order to preview and/or send.
In addition to the landing page, a series of email newsletters announcing (a) the campaign and (b) the actual gift fulfillment message were prepped along with a printed postcard notifying recipients that they had a special surprise waiting in their inbox.
It was a great opportunity to re-design a logo I initially worked on.
This iteration brings the branding more in line with the branding of WBUR. The color palette uses the organization’s yellow and black paired with a strong, clean typeface following an information hierarchy where the focus is on Murrow Society and then WBUR.
The WBUR Edward R. Murrow Society are comprised of donors who give gifts of $1,500 or more to support independent journalism.
WBUR launched BizLab in 2015 to test and measure the effectiveness of different funding models for public radio.
BizLab’s wordmark was refreshed recently to emphasize their leadership in driving innovation and experimentation to identify new revenue channels to sustain public radio into the future.
A strong typeface and repositioning of the WBUR logo help to bring highlight BizLab with nods to public radio and the future.
For the WBUR fall campaign, one of the thank you gifts for our listeners that I designed was a retro radio tin lunchbox.
I had a lot of fun working on this design – bringing in elements of NPR, WBUR and the station radio numbers. The “I ❤️ Public Radio” sticker was a nice touch. It was a genius idea from our Associate Director of Membership & New Media.
