The Ask: A leading priority for the Yahoo News leadership entering 2023 was making a play for the revitalized brand in the increasingly popular e-newsletter space. While an existing product was in use, new, dedicated leadership and writers had come aboard to lead a revamp, and a fresh coat of paint was in order as well. Yahoo News’ mission statement at the time was “The world’s best guide to the internet” with an emphasis on “helping our audience make sense of current events and their lives.” With this in mind, it was determined that the Yodel’s new voice and aesthetic should be a little more puckish and pop, but with wiggle room as not to seem tonally inappropriate when more serious stories and content were in that day’s headlines.

Though still restricted to proprietary Yahoo fonts, color and imagery were basically up for grabs as long as the primary Yahoo purple made it into the mix somewhere. Additionally, speaking of fonts, there were wildly underused serif options in the Yahoo font family that immediately classed up the proceedings. We also explored illustrated typographic options for the header as well, eager to see how far we could stretch company-wide brand guidelines.

Role: Creative direction, design