Johnson & Johnson
A Global Brand & Design Systems Transformation
Role: Lead Designer & Global Brand Lead
(Leading a cross-functional team of 12)
The Mission: Detangling the complexity of 200+ global properties to pivot J&J from a fragmented holding company to a single, purpose-led brand narrative.
The Vision: For a 135-year-old legacy brand, unification is a matter of both design and diplomacy. I led a team of 12 and an external agency to architect a system that bridged the gap between J&J's Corporate, Consumer, MedTech, and Pharma sectors. My focus was on creating a shared brand and visual language that worked across diverse global properties and cultures, translating a legacy of care into a modern, performance-driven enterprise narrative.
Johnson & Johnson operated in a highly decentralized, "siloed" environment. With independent stakeholders across MedTech, Pharma, and Consumer sectors, the visual identity was fragmented.
The challenge was to move from this holding-company model to a single, purpose-led brand that connected "Heart, Science, and Ingenuity" on a global scale.
We replaced outdated clichés with a "narrative operating system" built on global semiotic research. This unified our global divisions under a single story of care, ensuring every touchpoint resonates with both precision and heart.
I was tasked with defining a global brand architecture and a unified visual design system. The goal was to leverage J&J’s "Masterbrand" for trust while allowing individual product brands—like Band-Aid or Listerine—to maintain the unique "voice" required to compete in their specific markets.
Global coherence requires more than a style guide; it requires infrastructure. I engineered a modular system designed to bridge a fractured landscape of touchpoints. By establishing clear semantic rules, the identity scales from software interfaces to physical packaging—creating a unified ecosystem of care that maintains integrity without losing relevance.
While data anchored my decisions, I used stakeholder workshops to uncover the cultural 'blind spots' that research alone couldn't find.
We developed an enterprise narrative framework blending heart, science, and ingenuity to unify J&J’s global television spots and social campaigns. Leading the creative direction for these platforms, I translated a 130-year legacy into human-centered activations that project "measured boldness" and build deep trust across the enterprise.
I collaborated with global technology teams and built a scalable Figma library standardizing J&J’s digital system across digital products, marketing, corporate, intranet, Consumer and MedTech platforms. These compliant pattern and component libraries established a shared visual language, ensuring global accessibility and consistency for the first time.
I served as a strategic design partner to global business leads, creating a 'Freedom within a Framework' system that balanced enterprise equity with the distinct voices of iconic brands like Baby, Listerine, and Aveeno.
I balanced human warmth with scientific rigor, elevating technical cues for medical device companies and robotic platforms like Velys to drive global surgical innovation and ensure precision across the healthcare ecosystem.
To live the brand values internally, we mapped employee journeys from recruitment and the onboarding platform to wellness initiatives, aligning the experience to brand purpose. I evolved the UI pattern libraries and expanded their coverage. I designed these experience touchpoints using inclusive illustrations for global appeal and documentary-style photography to maintain authentic rigor.
Partnering with environmental designers, we utilized the brand design toolkit to create immersive experiences for global events. We treated every event as a journey, arranging key moments and specific touchpoints to guide visitors for optimal engagement. When these elements align, they create a cohesive environment to share powerful Johnson & Johnson stories.
Situation
Tasked with detangling the complexity of 200+ digital properties, I navigated organizational ambiguity at Johnson & Johnson to address a fragmented visual landscape. Independent stakeholders across Corporate, MedTech, Pharma, and Consumer sectors operated in silos, resulting in a disconnected experience that lacked enterprise-wide cohesion. The challenge was to pivot from a holding-company model to a single, purpose-led enterprise brand that unified "Heart, Science, and Ingenuity" on a global scale.
Role
I served as the strategic design partner to global business leads, acting as the advocate for a unified user experience across the enterprise. As the Lead Designer and Strategic Architect, my goal was to demonstrate strong design thinking by defining a global brand architecture that balanced masterbrand trust with local brand flexibility. This role required leading a cross-functional team of 12 people and managing an external agency to ensure the system scaled effectively.
Action
To bridge high-level strategy with hands-on execution, I utilized a "partnership-first" approach to the design process:
Uncovering Hidden Patterns: While data-driven analysis and global semiotic research anchored my decisions, I tapped into intuition and active listening to uncover the cultural "blind spots" within the decentralized organization.
Facilitating Shared Vision: I involved key stakeholders early in the architecture phase to align competing business lines, effectively reducing long-term implementation risks and shifting the conversation from "losing control" to "gaining brand equity".
Designing the Core: I architected the "Freedom within a Framework" model to unify the Masterbrand and its diverse portfolio. This system established "fixed" zones for enterprise equity and "flex" zones for a wide spectrum of expression—from high-stakes scientific rigor to consumer voices like Baby, Listerine, and Aveeno.
Brand Identity & Architecture | Narrative Strategy & Storytelling | Visual Language & Design Systems | Guidelines & Templates | Digital UI/UX | Social Media | Campaigns | Events | Packaging
Narrative & Visual Execution: Developed an enterprise narrative framework for TV and social campaigns, using a flexible toolkit of accessible animations and sophisticated photography to connect with diverse global audiences.
Internal Alignment: Mapped the employee journey to unify HR, recruiting, and wellness platforms, ensuring the brand purpose was infused into every internal touchpoint.
Technical Implementation: I built the Figma-to-React Storybook pipeline, baking design rules directly into the code to ensure developer alignment and global accessibility.
Results
The transformation turned the purpose-led brand into an operational reality:
Adoption: Achieved 82% adoption of the new brand system across global divisions within 18 months.
Efficiency: Reduced creative and developer build times by 40% through standardized component libraries.
Engagement: Realized 23% higher engagement on purpose-led campaigns, strengthening trust across a 12M+ person reach.
Financial Impact: Saved the organization approximately $8 Million in external agency spend by empowering internal teams with modular, scalable toolkits.