Thinkific Rebrand

Art Director — Brand Rollout, Design System & Photography

The most significant brand initiative the company had undertaken.

Thinkific's 2025 rebrand was a company-wide initiative that touched everything: brand strategy, messaging, visual identity, website, and GTM motion. 209 days from project start to launch. 35+ people involved. Over 1,100 web pages migrated to a new CMS. The strategic groundwork had been laid while I was on leave — the ICP had been sharpened, the agency partnership was underway, and the new direction was beginning to take shape. I returned from leave and stepped straight into the project as the Art Director at the exact moment the work shifted from strategy to execution.

My role

After the agency delivered the creative foundation — logo, colour system, typography, messaging framework, and a ~75-page brand guidelines document — I came in to consult, provide creative direction, and ultimately vet and land the final visual identity. I was involved throughout the agency partnership, not just at the end. Working directly with Focus Lab, I reviewed and redirected their creative output to make sure it held up to our brief, reflected the vision, and would perform across the full range of marketing applications before sign-off. Once the handoff happened, I ran and managed the rollout with a team of freelance designers — my distributed creative studio — working across every channel simultaneously. Every channel. Every format. 250+ assets reskinned before launch day.

The design system

The agency's 75-page guidelines gave us the creative foundation to build from. I expanded it into a 100+ page system covering real-world application across every marketing channel — email templates, paid ad formats, social graphics, website UI components, slide deck templates, event graphics, partner badges, illustrated icons, print and merch.

The photoshoots

I produced and art directed two brand photoshoots within two months of returning from leave — including Thinkific's first-ever customer and lifestyle brand shoot. Both days had a distinct creative direction. Day one was bold expert portraiture — eight individuals, real Thinkific customers and staff, shot with high-contrast lighting to create something that felt authoritative and human at the same time. Day two moved into lifestyle territory: four scenes at a Gastown loft location, shot to capture the warmth, collaboration, and community the new brand needed to feel. The full creative vision covered both days: the mood, the talent, the locations, the wardrobe direction tied to the new brand palette, and a three-tier photography ecosystem — hero portraits, lifestyle imagery, and a stock photography strategy organised by audience segment — that would give the team a coherent, scalable image library to draw from across every channel.

The result

The rebrand launched publicly in July 2025. I stepped into the project mid-stream, delivering exceptional attention to detail, standard of work, and brand curation that earned direct, personal recognition from the company's CRO. — 200+ design requests fulfilled in the lead-up to launch. — Boosted core web performance scores significantly by +21 points and raised accessibility compliance from the high 77 to 9 — Drove a measurable post-launch increase in product conversion rates, including a +1.7 percentage point lift in early product engagement. — Attracted immediate pipeline growth, generating high-intent demo requests from major multinational enterprises and tech giants within weeks of launch.