Reimagining PBS’ Visual System
PBS had an opportunity to develop a new brand identity for a new era — one that would keep content fresh and membership vital for the digital age. The challenge? Rebrand PBS by distilling 40+ years of being America’s most trusted media organization into a modern, sleek look, uniting a fragmented visual system and helping PBS connect with younger and more diverse audiences by leveraging a multi-platform approach.
I was part of the core team that reimagined PBS’ visual and design system, aiming to take the brand from nostalgia to relevance. My role involved creative direction, art direction, and leading design across digital platforms.
Discovery and Strategy
Previously, too many pre-approved logo variations was creating a confusing, outdated visual story. Attribution suffered from inconsistent presentation of the name and symbol, and increased consumption of PBS content on third-party platforms was reducing brand attribution—an issue that was aggravated by inconsistent presentation.
Brand Platform
Our partners at Lippincott led the charge in the initial discovery and strategy phases, identifying the foundational brand platform and purpose: that PBS is “the beacon of thoughtful and thought-provoking media.”
They also led the work in re-thinking the new logo. After exploring a full range of possibilities, they landed back close to home, guided by findings that the existing mark held a lot of brand equity and recognition that was too valuable to lose. Key updates were made: to soften and humanize the profiles, re-scale “PBS” to optimize readability across screen sizes, and modernize the typography.
Building the Visual System
Our digital design team (myself, Chris Bishop, and Laura King) took the high-level design principles of Moving, Welcoming, and Bright as the foundation to develop the new visual system. Through rapid and continual iterations, we established the brand’s core visuals.
Color and Typography
The first step was developing PBS Blue, our signature brand color. We chose it because it was equally vibrant and energizing while serving as a marker of trust. Our aim was to use the PBS Blue heavily to signal the brand as much as possible.
Typography was a key element to communicate a unified personality for PBS. We worked closely with Lippincott and font foundry Monotype, who created our custom PBS Sans font family, inspired by our logotype. It’s human, contemporary, and highly legible.
Navy and Medium provided weight and depth to the PBS Blue, and could also be used as alternates when we had more serious content, like Frontline and PBS NewsHour. We chose bright Teal, Coral, and Yellow hues as the primary accent colors to be used in small, key ways like focus states and highlighting information in a navigation. Led by myself in collaboration with Chris Bishop and Laura King.
PBS Sans created by Monotype.
Cross-Platform Collaboration
As we finalized the color palette and font, we collaborated closely with Nathaniel Howe Studios, who led explorations of the on-air motion graphics package. Meanwhile, I led high-concept creative directions of how the new brand could manifest on audience-facing, high-touchpoint digital experiences, specifically our OTT and Mobile apps. These concurrent explorations helped the team hone in on our core graphic design elements, which provided flexibility in expressing our brand across platforms.
Digital concepts and exploration led by me, with assistance from Laura King.
Content At the Heart
As we iterated, we kept coming back to 1 universal truth: our content had to be the star of the show, and the design can’t encroach or overwhelm the actual subject matter. The graphic elements were born from the logo’s circular forms and played a supporting role to color and footage. Imagery truly became the heart of everything we created. With PBS having so much beautiful video and photography, we had a mindset of not being afraid to use that in very big ways in our designs.
Graphic Elements
The motion design brought the brand to life and spoke beautifully to how our graphic elements were deceivingly simple in isolation, but powerfully versatile and allowed the content to shine when paired with motion. Our digital team took inspiration from the on-air package to develop social promo animations (seen at top of this page).
Imagery
Our core PBS brand group collaborated with Evolve Studios on capturing new brand imagery, based on 3 key principles: simple, immersive, and unexpected. Our aim was to invite viewers into being part of the moment, deliver a new perspective, and explore new angles. The visual system aims to highlight and elevate the beauty of our content, introducing our audiences to new worlds through immersive experiences and storytelling.
All imagery captured by Evolve Studios.
Illustration
We worked closely with illustrator Jerome Masi to create a set of 20 brand illustrations that were derived from circular shapes, soft lines, and human forms. Inspired by the aimless simplicity and humanity of our logo, the illustrations capture our creative spirit, evoke emotion, and complement our imagery in a bright and welcoming way.
All illustrations by Jerome Masi.
Comprehensive Design Guidelines
Our Digital Design team spearheaded defining the brand’s comprehensive design guidelines and Style Guide. Shared with all PBS internal employees, stations, and producers, we aimed to refine what had become a severely fragmented and diluted brand into a system of brand consistency.
Style Guide design executed by Laura King.
Station Success
Our new visual elements aimed to highlight PBS programming while unifying local and national communities across member stations. I was part of the core team that engaged over 150 PBS stations through localized workshops, conference, webinars, and many hours of direct outreach. We advocated the importance of a more consistent PBS brand presence and ensured that stations understood how to practically implement the new brand.
I built and managed the process for creating and delivering co-branding solutions to 100+ stations with diverse needs. I established the design guidelines, continually maintained priorities, tracked progress, and worked closely with our Station and Brand Strategy teams to optimize the project’s workflow.
As a result, over 70 percent of member stations are planning to adopt the new identity in the next 12 months during the yearlong celebration of the organization’s 50th anniversary, a landmark achievement for PBS.
The Brand In Motion
See how it all came together in the brand sizzle reel below.
Digital Case Studies
Read more on how we rebranded and redesigned the flagship PBS digital products in the case studies below:
Core Team Members
The PBS Digital Design Team (Chris Bishop, Laura King)
The PBS Brand Strategy team (Don Wilcox, Jen Allen, Andrea Iezzi, Emily Cooper)
The team at Lippincott
The team at Monotype
Nate Howe and the team at Nathaniel Howe Studios
The team at Evolve Studios
lllustrator Jerome Masi
The PBS Creative Services team (Kenji Thielstrom, John Ruppenthal, Jared Traver, Christopher Richard)