YouTube Brand Standards

Overview

YouTube’s brand team requires a global system that can scale across product experience, internal and external campaigns, and creator touchpoints. As Global Design Lead, I helped define brand standards, art direct key campaigns, and shape flexible toolkits used by teams worldwide.

The Challenge

The YouTube experience spans app interfaces, creator events, global social campaigns, and internal programs — but each operated with different visual languages. My challenge was to align these through one cohesive system that reflected YouTube’s dynamic brand and worked across geographies, formats, and audiences. The work also had to be inclusive, modular, and easy to implement at scale.

My Role

I was responsible for:

Leading global creative direction for brand system development

Aligning with UX, brand marketing, and product teams across time zones

Art directing social, creator, and sustainability campaigns (YouTube Creators for Climate)

Developing motion, typography, and logo behavior standards

Presenting frameworks and final assets to senior leadership and global teams

Research & Strategy

We audited existing brand behavior across product and marketing. I collaborated with product design, comms, and accessibility teams to assess opportunities for alignment, simplification, and inclusion.

Concept & Design System

We defined core principles for motion, typography, and modularity. I led explorations around logo lockups, brand hierarchy, and dynamic use of the red play button in different contexts — from app to event to creator video toolkit.

Toolkits & Applications

I art directed the build-out of systems used across:

Creator onboarding and communications

Social campaigns (static + motion templates)

Global events and sustainability activations

External Brand Partnerships

This included layout standards, motion behavior, typographic systems, and documentation.