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The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
DIGITAL DESIGN
INTERACTION DESIGN
After more than a century of prestige, the Wall Street Journal was ready to stretch beyond the traditional “business audience.”
As a Senior Art Director, utilizing the brand guidelines from Mother, I helped reposition WSJ through bold visual storytelling and strategic art direction, bringing fresh energy to the brand across social, digital, and print channels.
Beyond individual campaigns, I created visual frameworks, art direction guidelines, and modular templates (static and motion) that would enable the WSJ creative team to scale, maintain consistency, and uphold a strong brand character over time.
Asking for a Friend
BRANDING & IDENTITY
SOCIAL DESIGN
INTERACTION DESIGN
Research revealed that 75% of pregnancies among
15–19-year-olds are unplanned—the highest rate among high-income countries.*
The project began in response to a critical gap in access to clear, trustworthy, and youth-friendly information about reproductive healthcare in the United States. Many young people face barriers like stigma, lack of knowledge, and limited access to services. This reality sparked the idea for Asking for a Friend—a digital, one-stop-shop designed to empower young people with the tools they need to take control of their reproductive health.
15–19-year-olds are unplanned—the highest rate among high-income countries.*
The project began in response to a critical gap in access to clear, trustworthy, and youth-friendly information about reproductive healthcare in the United States. Many young people face barriers like stigma, lack of knowledge, and limited access to services. This reality sparked the idea for Asking for a Friend—a digital, one-stop-shop designed to empower young people with the tools they need to take control of their reproductive health.
Turning Trust into
a Visual Language
a Visual Language
The primary goal was to create a safe, inclusive platform that simplifies reproductive healthcare by providing accurate information and connecting users with low-cost, free, and local providers. Prioritizing accessibility, equity, and trust, the platform aimed to engage young people where they are—digitally and emotionally. So, crafting a personal and nonjudgmental solution for a diverse audience was complex yet essential.
Developed the brand after co-design sessions and fieldwork informing what resonates with young people today—empathy, playfulness, and empowerment—and translated that into a bold, cohesive visual identity.
To create an authentic, inclusive, and intuitive experience, we crafted the brand’s visual imagery around diversity—not just in race and gender but also in body types, motion, and expression—to ensure everyone sees themselves reflected in the brand.
Further reading on Asking for a Friend.
To create an authentic, inclusive, and intuitive experience, we crafted the brand’s visual imagery around diversity—not just in race and gender but also in body types, motion, and expression—to ensure everyone sees themselves reflected in the brand.
Further reading on Asking for a Friend.
CyberRwanda
BRANDING & IDENTITY
SOCIAL DESIGN
GRAPHIC DESIGN
CyberRwanda is a digital platform that aims to improve the health and livelihoods of urban and peri-urban adolescents
(12-19 years) by supporting them at every step of their healthcare journey. Co-designed with over 800 Rwandan youth, the CyberRwanda online platform and corresponding program includes narrative storylines, a robust FAQ library, and a youth-friendly pharmacy locator. For young people who do not have phone access, CyberRwanda is currently available on tablets in 60 schools across six districts and popular Youth Centers across the country.
One way we are working to make CyberRwanda desirable to young people is to create a strong logo and visual design. The logo for CyberRwanda was created to represent a sense of collective community. We worked closely with young people in Kigali to develop a mark that was based on traditional Rwandan art, strong yet simple patterns, and the many rolling hills that surround the capital city and earn it its motto, Milles Collines; the land of a thousand hills. Our brand values are being compassionate, trustworthy, future forward, and inclusive.
Further reading on CyberRwanda.
Further reading on CyberRwanda.
Faya Digital
BRANDING & IDENTITY
SOCIAL DESIGN
INTERACTION DESIGN
Challenge: In Kenya, improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) remains a high priority. Teen pregnancy and motherhood rates in Kenya stand at 18% meaning about one in every five adolescent girls has either had a live birth, or is pregnant with her first child ¹. At the same time, 49% of unmarried girls from 15-19 have unmet needs for family planning, which means that they would use modern contraception if they had access to it, but they don’t ². 13,000 girls drop out of school annually due to early and unintended pregnancy ³ and almost 30% of all new HIV infections are among adolescents and youth ⁴.
How might we use technology to make sex education engaging and accessible?
After multiple rounds of co-designing and testing with users, using a youth-driven design approach, our team designed and developed a WhatsApp chatbot called AskDoki. AskDoki, means “Ask a Doctor” in Kiswahili. AskDoki, is a natural language processing (NLP) ⁵AI-powered counselor for young people seeking advice and services to protect their health. Doki, our doctor chatbot persona, delivers comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education for adolescents based on eight topics ranging from healthy relationships, gender, STI and HIV/AIDS, to future livelihoods in Kiswahili and English. She also connects them with nearby youth-friendly service providers for free, and answers questions that are popular among young people. Our team chose WhatsApp since it is one of the most used social media platforms, and 96% of Internet users 16-64 reported using WhatsApp the previous month¹¹.
During the rough prototyping phase, we learned that mobile users in Kenya have access to “free WhatsApp”, which means users can access WhatsApp text and audio for free without depleting any of their purchased data bundles. However, downloading files like highly desired illustrations and videos is not part of the free WhatsApp offer, and we anticipate that many young people would not have mobile data bundles to view the photos, illustrations, and videos. Therefore, as we were creating the content, we ensured the most critical information was conveyed in the free WhatsApp text messages, whilst also including more visually engaging materials.
Further reading on AskDoki.
Further reading on AskDoki.
The Five
Obstructions
VIDEO
PRINT DESIGN
GRAPHIC DESIGN
ART DIRECTION
The Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. In the film, Von Trier gives Leth, his friend, and mentor, the task of remaking The Perfect Human — one of Leth's seminal short films and von Trier's favorite film — five times, each time with a different 'obstruction,' or constraint, given by von Trier. In the first obstruction, for example, von Trier asks Leth to remake the film in Cuba, and no shot can be longer than twelve frames. (Taken from Jarrett Fuller's Syllabus)
Jarrett Fuller, our professor, used this as a framework for the Design Technology class for the semester, asking us to pick a personal project to work with, without being told that we were going to use the same for our source for the five obstructions.
Jarrett Fuller, our professor, used this as a framework for the Design Technology class for the semester, asking us to pick a personal project to work with, without being told that we were going to use the same for our source for the five obstructions.
01
The First ObstructionThe brief was to design two posters without
using any Adobe products.*(word processor,
handmade, HTML/CSS, iMovie, online tools)
They can be any size and any shape
and does not need to be a physical
poster (could be digital/online, projection)
Deconstructing the concept of a poster
to it's most basic elements, and reimagining it
in a three-dimensional space I used the product
itself as part of the visual aided by a projection
of lights.I still retained the aesthetics of the
original project to match that of the
new brand, Gucci (hypothetical).
02
The Second Obstruction
The brief was to design a publication using only black and white elements (No color though greyscale is acceptable). The details had to include at least one photograph and one illustration and should consist of text. The solutions used to make the poster may not be used.
Juxtaposing the photographs from the original photo shoot and Celiné's catalog images, I created collages for
a hypothetical Celiné Spring Summer catalog. I designed the catalog keeping the imagery and text minimal, sticking to the color scheme.
03
The Third ObstructionThe brief of the third obstruction was to take the content from the publication and turn it into a website, but not a 1:1 translation (page order
must be different/distributed differently).
The content must be the same but functioning
differently. The site can be built with HTML/CSS
or prototyped in Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign,
but all features must be possible as if a real site,
only using fonts available on fonts.google.com.
At least one page must be prototyped for mobile
devices as well. The site cannot be an advertisement, a store, or trying to sell something.
The website was designed using imagery from both the publication and the original editorial. The horizontal
scroll was used to show the timeline of how the brand's accessories were sourced and made, instead of having
a purchasable catalog.
The website was designed using imagery from both the publication and the original editorial. The horizontal
scroll was used to show the timeline of how the brand's accessories were sourced and made, instead of having
a purchasable catalog.
04
The Fourth Obstruction
The fourth obstruction was to create a 30 second to 1-minute motion graphic
(video, animation, stop-motion, gif) without using any elements from the
previous obstructions. Only found elements/footage from other sources (no original footage allowed) that are thematically related to our previous work was allowed. It may not be an
advertisement/commercial.
Using Petra Collins' campaigns for the fashion brand, Gucci, I created a video montage that acted as a music video for the song, "Eyes Without a Face" by Baustelle. The link to the original project was the element of bags used in the video footage.
05
The Fifth Obstruction
The brief given was to create a design and prototype for an artificial intelligence bot or speculative project.
It can be a messaging interface, a voice-activated experience, an internet-connected device, Amazon dash button, or a futuristic piece of design.
Remaining true to the original project,the idea to create a smart bag, ‘Taylor’ arose. Primarily designed to keep track of one's essentials like their keys,wallet, and phones, Taylor lets one customize what their essentials are, and connects the user's bag to a mobile app.
😒 Snigdha Pamula, 2026 ©