ART DIRECTOR
R20 AGENCY
Rooted. Resilient. Ready.
R20 was a pop-up creative agency created through the Marcus Graham Project, built to service real clients while developing its own identity from the ground up. The team was intentionally multidisciplinary and culturally diverse, creating an opportunity to build a brand that could hold that mix with clarity and confidence.
MY ROLE:
As Art Director, I led the development of R20’s visual identity, shaping the creative direction and guiding the design team across the brand system. I also partnered with copywriters and strategists to define the agency’s mission, values, and voice, then helped carry that thinking into social, merchandise, and branded content.
POINT OF VIEW
R20 was built on the belief that culture is not one thing, and neither should a creative agency be.
The team came from different backgrounds, disciplines, and lived experiences, so the identity needed to reflect that plurality without reducing multiculturalism to a checklist or a single visual code. The opportunity was to create a brand that could hold many perspectives at once and still feel cohesive. We looked to the idea of renaissance as a cultural model: moments when people from the margins, different disciplines, and different communities collectively push culture forward. That became the foundation for an identity rooted in resilience, renewal, and cultural exchange.
EXECUTION
I art directed the identity across logo development, typography, color, floral imagery, social, merchandise, and branded content, guiding the design team to translate the agency’s cultural positioning into a cohesive visual language. The system also extended into The Drum, R20’s podcast platform, and the agency’s social presence, giving the brand enough range to move between internal culture, thought leadership, client-facing communications, and community storytelling while maintaining a consistent point of view.
Credits
Art Direction: Michele Mardorf
Copywriting: Amanda Wicks, Rakiya George
Design: Connie Flores, Chris Hardy