Students visited the New York Times where they were privileged with a talk from Laura Forde,* Executive Creative Director of Marketing* at the Times*. *The students were also briefly joined by Tom Bodkin, Chief Creative Officer and former boss of our very own Steven Heller.
Laura walked students through the history of the New York Times brand, including the evolution of the iconic wordmark and the breadth of the design problem that she inherited. Prior to her tenure, there was no director of design in the marketing department and thus a disparate visual language across all materials. Her very first act was to unify the call to action buttons on all web banners, which eventually expanded to a full brand audit and numerous style guides.
On top of a visual redesign of the Times’ marketing, Laura was also responsible for the advertising campaign at the Oscars, right after the New York Times had published one of the two seminal pieces in launching the #metoo movement. Her campaigns have drawn the ire of President Trump, on the flip side--protestors have used her printed ads as posters for defending the freedom of the press. This is, without a doubt, a fascinating time to be doing what Laura does.