Boston South Station, Aura Balance Brand Activation
Contributed to the concept phase and led all print production design for Aura Balance's OOH brand activation at Boston South Station — managing vendor relationships and overseeing final installation. Part of a campaign that reached 500,000+ people while active. Below is an early concept.
We went with a concept that directly engaged the viewer with pointed questions and a statement that defined how we were trying to convey the product "Parent smarter, not harder". This was a product that was an emerging leader in the parental controls space that utilizes AI to help gain insight to a child's online life. We thought the copy was bold enough to stand on it's own or merely paired with UI mocks. Regarding print production, these were tricky colors to get right. The dark gradient especially needed extra TLC.
Balance Assets
In addition to the OOH campaign, I co-owned Balance's day-to-day marketing creative across email, landing pages, one-sheets, social, and presentations.
The main challenge here was to keep the design language consistent across several creative channels. We were using multiple gradients that needed to work together and also stay consistent from purely digital spaces to print assets. As we evolved the brand we had to try and balance out some of the heaviness of the dark gradient.
Aura Parents Rebrand campaign
As part of the Aura creative team, I helped bring Aura Parents to life — taking the sub-brand from concept to execution across OOH, reports, one-pagers, social, and presentation templates.
Essentially I was working from a concept web page, so a lot of this early brand work was ideating on elements that would come to define how the brand would ultimately look and feel. Brand guidelines were built later and this work helped to stress-test the overall brand system. As this was an elevation from the prior dark gradient feel we really wanted to lean into a a more lighthearted vibe that felt approachable by both parents AND kids.
OOH -
Aura Parents
When Aura Parents partnered with Common Sense Media for their annual conference, I led the design and print production end-to-end — from booth concept through event collateral. Below are some initial concepts and the winning design.
Aura Business - OOH & Brand Assets
I also led the brand translation for Aura Business — an entirely new channel for the organization. I designed across every touchpoint: OOH booth design, deck templates, one-pagers, business cards, print collateral, email, and landing pages.
This work was also informed by an early concept web page. I really had to think about how some of those brand elements would work in a large format print setting since this particular part of the org would be doing a ton of events over the coming year. The branding was meant to be a real differentiator in the MSP space. Sleek black and gray foundation with electric yellow. The textures are evoking a solid foundation (earthy grounded elements like moss and veined granite etc). The copy is simple, bold and engaging.
Independent Brand Identity Design Work
Since 2016, Studio-IPL has partnered with architects, musicians, record labels, food entrepreneurs, and real estate brands — delivering identity systems, packaging, print, and digital work built to last.
Logo and brand identity for boutique landscape architecture firm.
Logo and brand identity for D2C/B2B meat distributor.
Physical media design and print production for SharkAttack! record label.
Illustration and poster design.
Logo and social media for long running vinyl dance night Soulelujah.
Brand design built for the real world — campaigns, identity, & everything in between
Aura Marketing Badges
I developed a system for marketing badges that used component variations in Figma. The system allowed us to move quicker when designing LPs, emails and ads that utilized any kind of marketing badge. It also systematized a design element that we were redesigning repeatedly giving us more consistency throughout our output.
Brand designer and creative generalist with 8+ years of experience across in-house marketing, agency, and independent studio settings. Specializes in brand systems, multi-channel marketing creative, and out-of-home campaigns — with a track record of supporting high-growth brands through multiple rebrands and large-scale activations.
About me
Testimonials
Curious Collaborator
״I had the privilege of working closely with Ian for the past six years and I cannot recommend him highly enough! He consistently delivers thoughtful and creative work, and is a pleasure to collaborate with. He maintains a passion and drive to learn new skills and take on challenges in whatever form they take. Any team would be fortunate to have Ian as a designer and creative partner.״
Kajya - Former team member
״Ian is the rare designer who brings serious range without serious ego. His curiosity and easygoing nature make him the perfect collaborator. He brought years of experience across print, web, digital and social channels to our team, always willing to share what he knew. He pushes beyond the standard influences through his vast knowledge of culture to create engaging work. He's equally at home with open-ended and brand-bound assignments. I highly recommend Ian to any creative team.״
Greg - Former Team member