Yahoo News Visuals
Rebrand & Style Guide
The Ask: Established in 2022 following a company restructure, the Yahoo News Visuals Team was assembled from creative leaders in design, UI/UX, animation, data visualization, photo editing, and project management. Tasked with signifcantly upgrading and updating the visual aesthetics and performance of the dated YNews brand, The News Content Style Guide is a rich microsite collecting and codifying of the teams’ work from 2022–24. Working closely with both my own team leads, as well as cross-channel editorial, marketing, social strategy, and ecomm leads, I oversaw the design and curation of this comprehensive brand guide. It includes overall guidance for design, illustration, and photography, the company-wide overhaul and massive suite of new templates for Yahoo’s primary social channels, the overhaul and toolkit for Yahoo News’ video graphics content, and advice on workflows and request/feedback pipelines. It is still in use as of Q4 2024.
Role: Creative direction, design, writer.
Outcomes:
• In the first month of deploying our new social templates, impressions nearly doubled MoM, average reach per post also doubled to over 150K, and interactions on Instagram increased +188.98% MoM. Additionally, Yahoo News IG added 5,722 new followers—a +143.28% increase MoM.
• Shopping initiatives for BF/CM +103% YoY growth in Total CVs, +59% YoY growth in affiliate clicks, and Amazon Oct Prime Day was +55% YoY growth in Total CVs, +111% YoY growth in Affiliate Clicks in 2023
• The team garnered Yahoo News its first meaningful recognition for design in years, in the form of 2 awards from the Southern California Journalism Awards 2023 for interactive projects around climate change and the anniversary of the film Titanic, respectively.
• The team also delivered over 3000 short-term requests in 2023, including but not limited to illustrations, franchise, map, and data designs, photo pulls, and bespoke social and video gfx.
• After redesigning The Yodel, Yahoo’s flagship newsletter, DAU were up 142% YoY 1 quarter after relaunch.
The guide was optimized for desktop and mobile web to further ease of use and reference in any setting or situation. Have a look for yourself.
The site not only functions as a traditional style guide, but also as a portfolio and summation of the team’s work.
Our reimagining of the brand’s social media voice and imagery were particularly effective, delivering a suite of over 70 self-service modular templates for the social team. This streamlined turnaround time for social-first breaking news, and freed up Visuals team designers to concentrate on heavier-lift features and evergreen content.
The Yahoo News Visuals Team 22–24
Ted McGrath: Head of Art & Design
Zana Kaba: Head of Project Management
Caitlin Murray: Art Director, UI/UX
Kyle McCauley: Art Director, Animation
Maayan Pearl: Art Director, Editorial
Nathalie Cruz: Art Director, Editorial
Nadeen Nakib: Photo Editor
Areta Gjicali: Project Manager
Quinn Lemmers: Designer
Joe Riccobono: Designer/Animator
Aisha Yousef: Designer
Seb Rijavek: Data Visualization
Caroline Brooks: Designer
Jack Forbes: Illustrator/Designer
Alex Cochran: Illustrator
Victoria Ellis: Illustrator