JALC Email Redesign
In 2019, the Jazz at Lincoln Center creative team began a rebranding process that involved the introduction of a new wordmark set in Tungsten, which also informed how we treat text across the board. While the website and much of the marketing collateral shifted to this new identity, one neglected area was our marketing emails.
For the launch of JALC's 21–22 season, I worked with the creative director to update these emails. The main objectives were to bring the emails in line with the visual identity while making it easy for non-designers to build on the templates, all while working within the restrictions of our email management system, Wordfly.
Where we were
The previous emails were plain and did not reflect the new visual identity across JALC's other channels. There was also little organization to help differentiate between the different sections, particularly for longer-form newsletters.
Where we needed to be
The examples above show the 21–22 season identity across select print and web applications. More so than the color palettes that change with each concert season, the Tungsten type has become the strongest identifier of the JALC brand. However, since most email clients do not support custom fonts, we needed to figure out another way to incorporate Tungsten.
Where we landed
The new emails introduce two significant changes: custom buttons and category headers, inserted as images, that allow us to include Tungsten and our brand colors. These images are saved into Wordfly's library and are easily accessible for anyone building emails. The headers allow another opportunity for Tungsten and brand colors to appear in the email, while simultaneously acting as guideposts to introduce new sections.
We also introduced an eye-catching logo header that goes at the top of every email and immediately signifies the email as a JALC one. Images are also improved to be at a ratio of 1920x1280 to take up more vertical height, particularly in mobile view.
With these changes, the emails are more visually pleasing and solve the problem of being both outdated and unstructured, all while being accessible to the non-designers who build them on a day-to-day basis.