Role: Brand Design Lead & Creative Director (2022–2024)
Motion Graphics Partner: Epipheo

Zelle takes consumer education seriously. As a peer-to-peer payment network, one of its core values is safety—and it’s critical that users understand how to protect themselves from fraud and scams. The Pay It Safe initiative is Zelle’s multi-channel effort to raise awareness around financial safety and build consumer trust through clear, accessible education.

 

The Challenge

Zelle needed to educate users about the growing landscape of payment-related scams—without inducing fear or sounding overly technical. The goal was to empower users with the knowledge to “pay it safe” by understanding common scam tactics and how to avoid them.

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The solution had to balance clarity, empathy, and brand consistency—while adapting content across formats like animation, social media, print, and digital platforms.

 

My Role

As Brand Design Lead, I served as the creative point between Zelle’s internal education team and our animation agency partner, Epipheo. I led the art direction, tone, visual development, and system consistency across all consumer education assets—ensuring every touchpoint stayed true to Zelle’s core branding while expanding our ability to communicate safety clearly and memorably.

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Creative Process & Solutions

To bring this initiative to life, I developed a unified visual approach for a wide-ranging set of materials, starting with a motion graphics series and expanding across formats.

• Motion Graphics Library: Directed the look, feel, and messaging across a multi-video educational series including Understanding Scams. I worked closely with our agency to define tone, pacing, and rhythm—ensuring each video was friendly, clear, and on-brand.

• Cross-Platform Design System: Established a consistent visual identity for consumer education—one that translated seamlessly from motion graphics into social posts, ebooks, printed handouts, and other supporting content.

• Creative Direction: Provided hands-on feedback and guidance to shape storyboards, script visuals, illustration style, and animation cues—building a comprehensive system for Zelle’s entire education asset library.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with Zelle’s education group, brand team, and compliance stakeholders to ensure creative solutions met communication, legal, and visual standards.