From purpose on paper to a creative system 100+ markets can use.

The Challenge:

A world-scale management consulting firm with 30,000+ people and over 100 offices. It needed a grab-and-go, modern, coherent, fast brand, consistent across regions and channels. This, paired with the creation and delivery of global campaigns and activations. Additional needs: overhaul of the digital products branding system, building of the growing podcast series visual identity system, brand-architecture for a growing number of sub-brands and a refresh to the practice areas’ visual language.

My role:

Director of Brand & Creative Strategy. I led creative direction of the core brand creative and resulting design systems (visual, motion, sonic), empowering partnering teams across social media, publishing, web, PR, and guided global external agencies.

What was built:

Creative Direction Playbook (80+ pp brand audid and creative direction strategy) as brand persona, core creative theme development & drivers overhaul, tone of voice proposal and design system principles.

Scalable design systems: typography, colour (digital-first), imagery/illustration art direction, data viz, iconography, motion principles, sonic DNA.

Enablement: templates and toolkits, DAM standards, extensive advocacy and guidance for internal teams and external vendors.

Where it showed up:

Global social media
Flagship and secondary publications (print and digital)
Tier-one media partnerships (NYT, Fortune, FT, MIT)
Flagship moments (Davos, COP, CES)
Internal events and leadership comms
Printed and digital advertising

Signals of impact:

More templates reuse; time-to-publish down; fewer escalations.

Coherent brand story across channels.

Coherent global campaigns implementation across the markets.

Team & scope:

Part of Global Services (location-agnostic) focused on the global brand: strategic fundamentals, key campaigns & topics, annual publications, tier-one partnerships. I led a design sub-team across concepting, creative strategy, brand guidance, and hands-on direction for visual, motion, 3D, and sound.

Existing areas overhauled:

Photography & illustration; colour (digital-first).

New areas introduced:

Motion identity system; sonic identity system; 3D/AI imagery system; social media templates; Data-viz template system; Icons system.

Our team

My team belongs to the Global Services network which is location-agnostic and mostly concerned with the global BCG affairs:

global brand look and feel
addressing key campaigns and topics
annual publications
global media partnerships (NYT, Fortune Magazine, MIT Press etc.)

Within that network, I was responsible for the creative leadership of a specific Design sub-team. The main responsibilities of the team are:

Conceptualization for the brand and all connected projects
Creative strategy
Brand Guidance (internal and external)
Creation across Visual, Motion, 3D, Sound (hands-on or creative steer of other teams)

My role

My list of responsibilities has changed over time but below is a top-line synopsis:

Driving Creative Direction for the global BCG brand
Socializing Creative Direction with stakeholders (e.g. Social Media Directors, Publishing Directors, Website Directors) and senior leadership (Managing Directors/Partners)
Innovation and creative overview of key global efforts (e.g setting key paths and working with external agencies/vendors on achieving these)

In granular detail

Scope of work

Our team provides benefits to the internal and external teams. Our work generates value for the global BCG brand through improved brand perception, more effective social media, and improved internal brand and marketing guidance systems.

All this to scale the brand while keeping it: premium, relatable, engaging, and consistent.

In all our work we create solutions that are aligned with, brand Positioning, and core Creative Direction and, built based on the user needs but also provide guidance materials and training.

The areas which we completely overhauled:

Photography (Art Direction)
Illustration (Art Direction)
Color (Digital-first overhaul and expansion/guidance)
Data Visualisation (Design/use system/guidance)
Icons (Modular creation system/guidance)

Innovation areas introduced since 2020:

3D AI Imagery (Art Direction)
Sonic branding (Sonic DNA, core assets packs, guidance for external vendors, software)
Motion branding (Motion principles, core assets packs, guidance for external vendors, software)
Social Media templates (Design system and guidance)