On Being

CREATIVE DIRECTION, digital product development

As Creative Director at The On Being Project, I led the vision for presenting our media project and public initiatives. I oversaw art direction, working with both internal teams and external artists to maintain consistent, cohesive visual branding across all platforms. I identified and led growth opportunities in design, video and digital product offerings. I developed and executed creative online community engagement work, collaborating closely with CEO and Host, Krista Tippett.

When I joined the project, the brand's visual identity relied on a beautiful logo by Pentagram and occasional stock photography. It was an exciting challenge to create a visual presence for the brand as strong as its radio voice. Over the years, we worked with hundreds of photographers and illustrators to craft a visual tapestry that reflected the diverse voices featured on the show. I was responsible for building the Art Department and advocating for our work and funding during my five years at On Being.

In 2018, we partnered with Upstatement to reimagine our 'digital home.' We created a welcoming space that invited our community to explore 15 years of content with exciting discovery pathways. I oversaw the digital design and collaborated with the agency, Founder/CEO, and editorial team to ensure all needs were met on both the front and back-end. Upstatement later called it the ‘most complex editorial WordPress back-end’ they’d ever built, which we took as a compliment. Over the next four years, we worked with Common Media to enhance page templates, including the ‘Experience Poetry’ page. In 2018, the site was a Webby honoree in the Cultural/Blog category, and in 2019, it won the People’s Voice Award in the same category.

I was responsible for building the organization’s video discipline, which took shape in several forms. In 2019, we received a generous Mellon Foundation grant to create 10 Poetry Films for our website and new YouTube channel. I led the creative direction and produced all the films in collaboration with the hand-selected artists. The films were well-received by our community, featured in Communication Arts and It’s Nice That. In 2022, we partnered with Maria Popova of The Marginalian to create 9 films for her Universe in Verse celebration of wonder, science, and beauty. Below are a few of my favorite commissions. To see more, explore the full YouTube channel.

From 2018 to 2022, we grew our Instagram community from 46k to 280k+ through unique engagement strategies. I led the team in developing editorial content, collaborating with photographers and illustrators to bring it to life, editing video, and directly engaging with our community.

In 2020, Krista developed the On Being Wisdom App, a tool for nurturing inner life and presence. I designed the artwork for the first four courses and helped shape the app’s form and overall look in partnership with the development agency.

In 2022, I created On Being’s first official Visual Guidelines document, a 26-page guide that codified the concepts I had been shaping over the previous five years.

Erin Colasacco

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