Brand design built for the real world — campaigns, identity, & everything in between
Aura Balance: One idea, from commuter station to social feed
Brand activation, OOH, and everyday marketing creative for a new parental controls product
The challenge
Aura Balance was an emerging differentiator in the parental controls space, using AI to help parents understand their child’s online life. The brand needed to stand out in a crowded category and stay consistent while its design language was still evolving.
My role
I contributed to the concept phase and led all print production design for Balance’s out-of-home activation at Boston South Station, managing vendors and overseeing final installation. Partway through, our Associate Creative Director went on leave, so I took over the final art tweaks, redesigned concepts for large-format printing, worked directly with the vendors, and approved final proofs, all on a tight timeline. Alongside that, I co-owned day-to-day marketing creative across email, landing pages, one-sheets, social, and presentations.
The big idea
We chose a concept that engaged commuters directly with pointed questions and one clear statement: “Parent smarter, not harder.” The copy was bold enough to stand alone or pair with product UI.
Production was its own challenge. The brand’s dark gradients were difficult to reproduce in large format, and they needed extra care to get right.
Scaling it down
The same idea had to work in an email, landing pages, one-sheets, decks, and reports with gradient-heavy assets staying consistent from screen to print while the design language kept evolving.
Result
The activation reached 500,000+ people while it was live. As the product evolved from Balance to Aura Parents, the brand moved in a completely different direction (see next section).
Aura Parents: Evolving a visual brand identity from web concepts to events
Sub-brand creation and event design for a parental controls product
The challenge
Aura Parents was the next stage in the evolution of Balance: an engaging parental controls app that kids felt part of rather than a victim of. The brand team wanted positive, colorful work that reflected that direction, a clear step away from the earlier dark gradient look, and approachable to parents and kids alike. There was a second challenge: the brand didn’t fully exist yet.
My role
Working directly with the Creative Director and Senior Designer, I helped bring Aura Parents to life, taking the sub-brand from concept to execution across OOH, reports, one-pagers, social, and presentation templates. I worked from a concept web page, so much of the early work was exploring the elements that would come to define the brand’s look and feel. Brand guidelines came later, and this work helped stress-test the system. I also worked with product designers and the research and clinical teams to portray the product accurately as it kept changing.
The proof point: Common Sense Media
When Aura Parents partnered with Common Sense Media for their annual conference, I led design and print production end to end, from booth concept through event collateral. The challenge was standing out against every other parental controls offering at the summit. We led with a pointed question and tied lifestyle imagery and product views together with bold colors.
Result
The conference put Aura Parents front and center with industry players, educators, policy makers, and media personalities, exactly the audience we needed to legitimize a new product in a crowded space. Our product manager and brand lead reported heavy engagement at the booth, and attendees commented on how much it stood out. As the new brand rolled out across the product and marketing, we also saw a noticeable uptick in parental controls tools being activated in the app.
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The Daily Work
Design at the speed of a high-growth marketing team
Key designer on a small but mighty creative team
At Aura, I supported brand and marketing efforts through a period of rapid growth, including 30% year-over-year revenue growth and a social following that doubled in twelve months. Over nearly seven years, this was the work I did every week: fast, high-volume, and always on-brand
Left to right: Black Friday promo email, Online quiz promotional email, General CLM email. All designed to stay consistent with the brand and/or campaign while keeping up with a fast marketing calendar.
Landing Pages
Left to right: Early Parental Controls LP (before Balance and Aura Parents), Redesigned Identity Guard (sub brand) LP, Red Sox partnership email. I rebuilt and extended landing page templates so new pages could go live quickly while staying on-brand.
Social
Left to right: Schools out post in Balance/Aura Parents feed, HR post for LinkedIn, Digital stress stat post for Aura Parents, Paid Social post. One offs plus templates and systems for fast, consistent content. We concepted and created a myriad of social content for several channels each week. Our work paid off; the following doubled in twelve months.
Presentations
Some examples from presentation template systems I built and owned at Aura, used company-wide by sales, marketing, and leadership. The system gave people a tighter structure and a broader set of layouts, so decks stayed cohesive no matter who built them.
Independent Brand Identity Design Work
SL/LA Logo, branding and photography for boutique landscape architecture firm
Craft Steaks Logo (plus variations) and website design
Shark Attack Music & Barge Recordings Logo, branding, package design, lettering, photography, sell sheets (not shown) and poster design (not shown).
Poster design and illustration From left to right: Night Owl soul night poster, Virgin Blacktop movie poster, Visions Art Show design and illustration, Into the Woods theater production illustration for marketing.
Beullah Typeface Personal project to develop and design a typeface from scratch. Display font for all around design projects.
Since 2016, my practice, Studio-IPL, has partnered with architects, musicians, record labels, food entrepreneurs, and tech companies, delivering brand identity systems, typeface design, packaging, posters, and print and digital design.
Logo is meant to exude elegance while the colors are inspired by nature.
Client wanted the logo to have a classic, old-timey 19th century feel.
Brand and marketing designer with 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