Case Study
Brand Design
Building Forbes Research Brand
From 0 to 1, building a scalable design framework to translate proprietary research into omnichannel experiences.
Client
Forbes Internal R&D Initiative
Scope
Brand Guideline Development, System Design, Creative Strategy, Editorial Templates, Multiplatform Storytelling
My Roles
Lead Designer & Art Director
Teams
Editor, Video, Revenue, Leadership Team
Challenges
Forbes Research generated high-value insights, but lacked a cohesive visual system to transform those findings into scalable editorial content across reports, articles, video, and social channels.
Impact
Shipped style guidelines, enabling Forbes Research to launch a 360 content experience;
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Reduced production timeline via a scalable design system and reusable template;
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Created monetization opportunities and recognized $300k+ revenue.
Design North star
Design for digital-first discovery — keeping core insights immediately legible while enabling deeper exploration through intentional interaction.
On-Platform Content Experiences
Off-Platform Content Experiences
To ensure consistency across platforms, I created a modular design system supported by guidelines and reusable templates.
Scroll to see how the system came together
Defining The Visual Language Principles
With research at its core, the leadership team sought a new, visually striking data visualization style that could bring the new product to life while elevating the perception of Forbes Research.
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One key constraint: the proposal needed to remain intact with the established Forbes brand system, using the existing typography and color palette to ensure cohesion with the broader Forbes ecosystem.
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With those parameters in mind, I focused on three guiding design principles:
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High-Touch: The visual language should feel elevated and refined, speaking to a core audience of High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and Business Decision Makers (BDMs).
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Energy: Premium doesn’t have to mean quiet. I explored ways to leverage Forbes’ existing brand assets to introduce movement, contrast, and visual dynamism.
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Scalability: Because the system needs to work across editorial articles, video, advertising, and print, the design had to remain modular and adaptable.
Proposal: First Round
Feedback & Refinement
A critical part of this phase was gathering feedback from leadership while working closely with Kristine Francisco, VP of Multiplatform Content Design.
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Together, we evaluated the proposals not only from the visual perspective but also through the lens of design systems thinking, considering how each decision would impact scalability, production time, and long-term goals.
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The first thing that the team is aligned on is the typography I chose. The Graphik family is an aesthetically pleasing and functional font family. It's highly adaptable and easy on users' eyes. (Side note: this font was later adopted by the entire Forbes site.)
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Two key insights emerged during the review.
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Insight #1: Color as Movement
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While the initial exploration used color to create motion and energy, the first round of testing felt visually muddled.
The refinement focused on simplifying the color application, strengthening the bold accents, and introducing cleaner gradients to create a more modern and intentional visual.
Insight #2: Texture vs. Clarity
Fine line details and grain textures initially introduced a sense of elegance, but they also created two problems:
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The noise texture reduced legibility
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An aesthetic that can be perceived as overly ornamental
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This clarified that the gradient color palette was a strong foundation, but the supporting elements needed simplification.
In the next iteration, I pushed the visual language toward bolder contrast, cleaner gradients, and improved accessibility, ensuring the system remained legible in both light and dark modes.
From Sprint to System
Once the overarching visual direction was established, we ran a team-wide design sprint, in which each designer was tasked with creating a data visualization using the emerging language.
This enabled me to spot patterns across the outputs, seeing:
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What worked consistently, and where the "intention-application" gap arose
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The data visualizations design skill levels among the team, and how my template might impact their day-to-day workflow
From these insights, I developed a scalable visualization library, translating the exploratory work into a repeatable system that the team could apply across future research content.
Reflection & Learning
Balance Ambition with System Discipline
Early explorations prioritized visual richness and customization: color, texture, and motion, but not all directions held up to real-world constraints such as legibility, accessibility, and scalability. The refinement process reinforced that strong systems require both aesthetic clarity and operational discipline.
Clarity Enables Scalability
Simplifying the visual language improved both usability and adaptability. The more focused the system became, the easier it was to extend across formats.
Cross-Team Collaboration as a Stress Test
What began as an individual initiative was later expanded into an org-wide effort through design sprints, collaboration with the video team & third-party creatives. This process marked a transition from focusing on individual executions to thinking in terms of systems, adoption, and long-term sustainability, where success is defined not just by the final output, but by how effectively the work can be used and scaled over time.
Design Systems Require Real Usage to Mature
The sprint phase made it clear that systems are not fully defined in isolation. Observing how different designers interpreted the framework helped identify gaps and refine the system into a more robust and scalable library.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
CORE WORKING TEAM
Creative Director & Brand Design Lead → Janet Yin
↳ VP, multiplatform Content Design → Kristine Francisco
↳ Content Leads → Romy Oltulski, Nick Clunn, David MacLean
↳ Research Lead → Yana Toneva
SPRINT & DESIGN CONTRIBUTORS
Content Designers → Jenn Ramos, Meghan Donovan, Martine Ehrhart, Aira Dolfo
↳ Marketing Design Team
VIDEO PARTNER & MOTION GRAPHICS
↳ executive Producer & Distribution → Timothy Pierson
↳ Video Director & Editor → Gregory Anderson
↳ Motion Graphics → Studio Ianus
EXECUTIVES
↳ sVP, Forbes Research & Insights → Janett Haas
↳ SVP, Branded Content → Josh Robinson
↳ Executive Director of Research → Ross Gagnon
Shout out to the Salers who sold sponsor Opportunities on the content!