Selectedwork
A look at a few of the projects I've produced, written, and led the creative direction for over the years.
Brand & web
UBC Brand Website
University of British Columbia, Brand & Marketing
About the projectWith a global community of researchers, faculty, staff, and more than 350 communicators, the brand website needed to be accessible, educational, and inspirational: a single reference site teaching the university's story, voice, and visual identity.
Creative direction and strategyI served the project as a story architect and writer, shaping the site's content strategy and narrative flow across the site. I collabrated with the Brand and Marketing team leads to author the brand voice, video, web and writing guidelines and worked closely with the First Nations House of Learning to develop the Indigenous Peoples Language Guide. The project won an Applied Arts Award for Website Design. Visit the site to explore the work.
The Ripple Effect, Sustainability Campaign
UBC Sustainability
About the projectThere was a need to raise awareness about sustainability within the undergraduate population on the UBC Vancouver campus and encourage students to engage with sustainability education and resources. The core narrative was anchored in the concept of the campus being a living lab. A transmedia campaign brought the concept to life, with more than 27 living-lab events, a sit-down dinner for 1,000, and cows on campus from the UBC Agassiz agricultural studies site, among other experiential events. A website acted as a guide to the events, labs, and sustainability resources for students. In addition to the interactive events, the character of Emily was created and featured in an animated short film which followed her through a day of campus sustainability initiatives. The character was a sustainability ambassador in her second year at UBC and her narrative was extended across a dozen touchpoints including bus signage, on reusable water bottles, coffee wraps and across digital channels.
Creative direction and content strategyWorking closely with UBC Sustainability, I developed a transmedia structure for the campaign to ignite direct hands-on engagement with students in key areas of the campus (transit hubs, main mall, gathering areas in various faculties, student union building) coupled with an overarching narrative that easily ported from animation to print to social media. My role as writer and producer saw my involvement in every aspect of the campaign to ensure the narrative came along at every touchpoint in the complex campaign. The UBC Brand and Marketing communications team worked with the UBC Sustainability communications team to achieve an outsized result for the scope of time we had, but we improved awareness in the undergraduate population by 68%, and created a lasting legacy that continues today in the Harvest Feast held every year down Main Mall on the Vancouver Campus. Read more about the campaign's impact in this annual report feature.
Feature stories
Langara Story Project
Langara College, Work Integrated Learning
About the projectThe goal of the WIL Story Project was to elevate the profile and understanding of work integrated learning (WIL) through stories profiling students reflecting the nine types of WIL at Langara as defined by CEWIL Canada. The intention was to demonstrate the breadth and depth of WIL learning opportunities at Langara across a diverse range of programs through student-centered storytelling. What Is Your Story was hired to develop the project end-to-end and work closely with WIL leadership to create a narrative collection with updated assets for web and social media.
Creative direction and strategyA content discovery workshop was developed to engage with and listen to faculty and staff at Langara who were engaged in WIL, and from these conversations a content strategy was developed for the project. Eighteen students were interviewed from across a broad range of programs at the college, and each student had their photograph taken for the story. These profiles were then featured on Langara's website and across their owned social media channels. Read an example of a student story from the project.
Good Soil, Good Humans
UBC Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
About the projectThe Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) was a relatively new school doing important research that had a global reach, but awareness of their work, both within the UBC community and across the Lower Mainland, needed to be communicated to engage a broader audience and inspire support for their research and farm programs. The goal of the story project was to not only demonstrate the diverse research, learning, and community at the UBC Farm where the centre chiefly operates, but also reflect the diversity of the food system and creating a food-secure future. The story was an eight-part feature story and short film, with interactive components such as recipes and tips for sustainable food practices.
Creative direction and strategyThe CSFS had established areas of focus that helped organize the structure of the story project. Each had its own chapter in the story and a dedicated web page, with photography, storytelling, video, recipes, infographics, and practical tips and how-to's on sustainable food practices. The stories featured interviews with educators, researchers, post-doctoral fellows, students, and farm staff on every aspect of the programs, markets, learning, and what goes into making a sustainable food system. I produced and wrote a short film about the UBC Farm for the project titled Good Soil, Good Humans. It featured the UBC Farm as a unique learning space for students, researchers, and the public to participate in one of the most innovative "living labs" on earth. The film went on to win for Motion in Applied Arts Magazine for Best Motion Single. Watch the film.
100 Years of Innovation
University of British Columbia
About the projectA 22,000-word digital feature marking UBC's 100th anniversary, weaving a century of research and discovery into a scrollable, decade-by-decade story built around an interactive timeline.
Creative direction and content strategyAs a producer, I worked with a team of developers, writers, and designers both on UBC's Brand and Marketing team and with external freelancers. UBC Archives were invaluable as a key partner on this project which took more than two years to complete. Working end to end on research, writing, and art direction for each decade in UBC's history from 1915 to 2015, the story provided a valuable showcase of UBC's innovation across the century. The feature won UBC's Excellence in Communications award for Written Content and an Applied Arts award for design.
Catalyst for Innovation
Innovation UBC, Website, Video & UGC Platform
About the projectUBC's Catalyst for Innovation website featured four media-rich stories on students, faculty, and alumni applying new research and technologies to solve global problems. For each story, a feature video was filmed on location with subject-matter experts. The site also offered a user-generated content platform, where readers could submit their own stories of applying research to real-world issues. Over four months, more than 50 stories were submitted and featured, celebrating the innovators at UBC.
Creative direction and strategyAs a producer and writer for this project, I was tasked with showcasing the type of innovation that UBC is known for, and that is found in its start-up community. The creative strategy was to do a deep dive into four innovative start-ups, then develop a system for other innovators at UBC to submit their own innovation stories directly to Innovation UBC. The goal was to give readers many ways into the topics, through text, video, and interactive snapshots contributed from across the UBC community. The team included designers Laura Stobbe and Mark Pilon, with video directed by Lucas Hrubizna. Read the story and explore the short films for this feature.
Training & destination development
Destination: Story
Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism
About the projectDestination: Story is a course I developed for the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism. The course was designed to help tourism operators use the tool of storytelling to communicate their brand personality, experiences, and core identity to engage digital visitors at every stage along their path to purchase. The course invited tourism operators and destinations in the Atlantic region to explore how to connect with visitors through storytelling by learning how narrative structure and design change behaviours and influence visitor decisions. The course offered a blend of traditional story craft and digital content marketing strategy so participants gained a deeper understanding of how to tell stories in a competitive digital environment. The course ran for two years and was delivered to all four Atlantic provinces.
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