Creator Marketing style guide

My role

Lead Art Director

01 — Breadth & depth

YouTube’s Creator Marketing team needed a visual style guide that would align with the core brand standards while addressing the challenges of producing graphics at scale and in a manner that was relevant to their many audiences.

I led a team of designers in constructing a framework that would address four of their most prominent verticals — fashion & beauty, YouTube Black, gaming and general communications — while providing a template for how the system could expand and flex over time.

02 — A common language

I conceived of a toolkit approach that would solve several problems at once. I started by defining a common set of elements: logo, typography, color, shape, pattern, gradient and illustration. We tailored the particular expression of the elements to their respective verticals while applying them in a similar manner across the system. This allowed each vertical to have its own unique look while maintaining a shared design syntax and consistent voice. 

By turning these elements into a kit of parts, we made it easy to rapidly generate communications at scale.

02.1 — Color

YouTube’s secondary color palette is large — over 100 swatches. In the interests of both efficiency and consistency, we drew from the secondary palette to create a set of highly limited palettes for each vertical.

02.2 — Shape

Across the system, we use large, bold shapes to frame content. Each set is adapted to meet the needs of its vertical. For example, the gaming shapes are built on an isometric grid in reference to polygons and virtual space while the fashion & beauty shape set is inspired by the silhouettes of cut fabric scraps.

02.3 — Pattern & texture

Patterns add richness and further reinforce the tone of each vertical. They are primarily applied as fills within shapes. 

One of the key challenges of this project was meeting the scale demands of the Creator Marketing team — on the order of hundreds of comms per quarter. Because many comms are built around recurring themes, it made sense to provide illustration sticker sheets to cover the most common needs of each vertical while freeing up marketing’s resources to invest in bespoke imagery for high impact moments.  

Selected fashion & beauty characters — Pierre Croco

03 — All together now

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Creative Director — Chris Bettig

Producers — Shane Burke, Ash Qualischefski

Art Directors — Chelsea Beck, Florencio Zavala

Consulting Art Director — Robyn Lee

Design — Drake Manalo, Eunhae Yoo, Giselle Rodas, Ching-Fa Lung, Denzel Hill, Niv Bavarsky

Illustration — Toykyo, Chelsea Beck, Pierre Croco, Sinenhlanhla Chauke, Sabrena Khadija