American Express
Strategic Design Principles
design strategy — brand strategy — design systems
The challenge
American Express wanted to establish a shared strategic foundation for how design expresses the brand across channels, products, audiences, and teams. The challenge was to identify the enduring qualities that make Amex distinctive and translate them into a practical framework that could help designers and marketing partners make more consistent, intentional design decisions.
My role
I collaborated with a Creative Strategist and the Director of Brand Design Strategy to develop a Design Strategy grounded in both external best practices and an analysis of American Express's own brand and design expression.
I helped lead the research and synthesis that informed the strategy, and contributed to the development of three design principles that ladder up to an overarching Design Philosophy.
Impact
The Design Strategy moved from research and theory into active application, giving teams a shared framework for evaluating design decisions and exploring how the principles could improve consistency, clarity, relevance, and quality across the brand.
Selected details and visual examples are omitted due to the confidential nature of the work.
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Studied design strategy at leading global brands, examining how different organizations structure their strategies and identifying common approaches as well as meaningful differences.
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Audited American Express's brand and design expression, evaluating existing design across key multichannel brand platforms and synthesizing the enduring qualities that distinguish the brand.
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Translated research and analysis into a strategic framework, defining a Design Philosophy and three principles intended to guide design decision-making across teams and channels.
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Presented the work to leadership across Marketing, Product, and Brand, including executive leadership, to build alignment around the emerging strategy.
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Pressure tested the principles against active projects, using real-world applications to identify opportunities to refine and strengthen the framework.
