The Challenge
The Emmy Awards needed to stop feeling like a stagnant legacy institution. To keep the Academy growing and stay relevant, I had to elevate the visual identity to reach a younger audience and keep the brand energized in a crowded media landscape.
My Role
As Art Director and second in command I led our daily creative operations. I worked between leadership, external vendors, and network partners to manage everything from our in-house design team to the look of the ceremonies and all our media campaigns.
Design Decisions
I overhauled our production systems and software to cut down on project turnaround times. This helped us hit brutal broadcast deadlines without ever compromising the high end look the brand demands.
I evolved our key art and visual assets to feel fresh and accessible for a younger, digital-first audience. I made sure our design systems were flexible enough to work across massive live stage installations and quick-moving social media content.
I guided the visual evolution of the Academy for sixteen years. By building deep institutional trust I kept the brand at the gold standard of the industry as we aggressively grew our membership base.
The Outcome
My work helped transform the Academy into a more expansive and modern organization. Key results include:
Supporting a 257% growth in membership from 7,000 to over 25,000 members.
Leading the creative direction for sixteen years of ceremonies and balls to ensure visual consistency during live global broadcasts.
Executing high impact media campaigns in major trade publications and across social platforms that helped us reach millions of viewers every year.
Television AcAdemy & EMMY AWARDS
Project Scope
Brand Identity
Logo Design
Collateral
Invitations
Tickets
Signage
Visual Identity
Event Art
Step & Repeat
Banner Ads
Programs Used
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe InDesign
To celebrate the 70th anniversary, the entire Design Department, as well as an external design agency, worked on concepts for the special logo that would be used year round to promote the Emmy Awards. A logo I designed was chosen to be used on everything from billboards to stationery to trade ads to on-air broadcast graphics, down to the hamburger boxes served at our Governors Ball. The logo was seen by over 10 million people.
Invitations for various Emmy related events: the 70th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, the Performers Nominee Reception party celebrating nominated actors and actresses on Emmy weekend, and the 70th Emmy Awards show invitation.
Invitation package for the 73rd Emmy Awards (2021). Four color-coded invitations and nine total RSVP cards were printed to distinguish the Primetime Emmy Awards show from the three Creative Arts Emmys shows. All invitations and RSVPs were printed on soft touch papers with no ink whatsoever. The invitations utilized reflective foils only, in gold, red, blue, and purple. Black foil was used for the Primetime Emmy show RSVP. These foils were used for all design elements, QR codes and copy.
Key art created for various Television Academy events; from the annual College Television Awards, to the “Evenings With” events featuring the cast of popular shows, to special events and initiatives.
Various logos designed for different Television Academy & Television Academy Foundation programs, initiatives, and awards.
Print and digital campaigns promoting the Emmy Awards telecast, published in People, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety. This work involved collaborating closely with an agency to develop the static graphic in tandem with motion graphics, and then manipulating the complex key art into a comprehensive suite of deliverables, ranging from large-scale trade ads to banner ads, social assets and animated GIFs for Instagram Stories. I also managed the associated media budgets and worked alongside marketing and corporate partners to secure and renew annual ad placements.
