2023-2024

Justworks Brand Refresh

Overview
Brand awareness became a company-level priority during a period of leadership transition and evolving marketing structure. The existing visual identity had grown inconsistent across channels, and design was often engaged late in the process.

What Needed to Change
The brand didn’t just need a visual update, it needed structural clarity. Campaigns were moving quickly, the product was expanding, and internal communications lacked a cohesive visual system. Without clearer guardrails, execution risked becoming reactive and fragmented. The challenge was to evolve the brand while creating a system that could scale across both internal and external moments.

Creative director: Ryan Howard
designers: Gerard Zengel, Abby Bernard
UI/UX Designer: Esteban Acevado
Copywriter: David Salisbury

I partnered with the Creative Director to define the strategic and creative rationale for the refresh and led visual execution across marketing channels.
I aligned marketing, product, and executive stakeholders, guided the design team, and ensured the updated system could scale across both internal and external applications.
• Audited existing brand assets to identify gaps in consistency, accessibility, and scalability.
• Refined typography, color usage (including gradient systems), and compositional rules to create a clearer visual hierarchy.
• Updated and consolidated brand guidelines to reflect new standards and reduce ambiguity.
• Built practical templates and frameworks to support campaign rollouts, executive presentations, and cross-channel marketing.
• Established alignment rituals and early stakeholder engagement to prevent reactive execution.

What Changed
The refreshed system created stronger cohesion across campaigns, internal moments, and executive communications.
It reduced visual fragmentation, improved clarity in handoffs, and positioned design as a strategic partner in shaping how Justworks shows up internally and externally.