Revitalizing Sounding Board's brand to bridge the leadership gap.
— Brand identity / 2024
A confident, premium identity system that repositioned a leadership-development platform for top-tier global enterprises—Intel, EY, and Cloudera among them. Brand voice, visual language, and design system, recalibrated end-to-end.
— 01 / The brief
Why it exists
A mid-funnel asset that had to earn a CHRO's full attention.
Strategic-buyer pipeline doesn't convert on cold ads. To move a CHRO or VP of Talent toward a conversation, Sounding Board needed an asset with the substance of a real publication—something a senior leader would actually finish—while still driving registration and a credible follow-up.
So this isn't a brochure. It's a 19-page editorial eBook arguing a single thesis: AI transformation is, first and foremost, a transformation of leadership. My job was to make that argument look as rigorous as it reads—on-brand, beautifully paced, and gated to qualify intent.
They plan the digital part of it—the execution. What they don't plan is the change-management part of it.
— 02 / Concept
Brand & art direction
The human inside the machine.
The cover sets the tone in Sounding Board's deep navy: an oversized grid of open circles—leadership, room to grow—carried across the contents and section pages by a field of blue-to-teal data points that rains down and dissolves. Technology, humanized. It signals AI without a single cliché robot or circuit board.
From there I built on the refreshed Sounding Board identity—Aglet-style display headlines, Roboto body, the geometric accent language—and paired it with two expressive image registers so a dense, research-heavy read never feels like a whitepaper.
Cover system — navy, circle grid & data-point fieldeBook pp. 2, 9
Make the argument look as rigorous as it reads.
— 03 / Structure
Narrative architecture
An intro, four chapters, one through-line.
I structured the read as a building argument—opening with the human thesis, then moving through the hard data on why transformations fail, the leadership capabilities that beat the odds, and a real customer proof point. Each chapter carries its author's byline, giving the piece the authority of a journal, not a sales sheet.
— 00The Key Factor in AI Transformation: HumanityIntro · Michelle Knight, SVP Strategy & Operationsp. 05
— 01Beating the Odds: The Hard Truth of TransformationsChapter 1 · Mary Carder, Content Writerp. 09
— 02AI Transformation Demands a Transformation of LeadershipChapter 2 · Mary Carder, Content Writerp. 13
— 03Maximize Value, Accelerate TransformationChapter 3 · Mary Carder, Content Writerp. 16
— 04Lived Values Drive Innovation for Wellstar Health SystemChapter 4 · Dr. Laura Dannels, Chief Talent Officer, Wellstarp. 18
— 01
Leading Self
Self-actualization and the mindset shifts that come before a leader can guide anyone else through change.
— 02
Leading Others
Empathy, emotional intelligence, and the communication clarity that turns resistance into buy-in.
— 03
Leading for Impact
Comfort in the unknown, adaptability, and resilience—leading at scale through continuous disruption.
Coaching framework — the spine of the argumentChapter 1
— 04 / Imagery
Three image registers
Photography, collage, and pattern—in concert.
To keep a long read moving, I directed three distinct but coordinated visual registers. Cinematic, low-key photography grounds the human stakes. Vivid silhouette and collage illustration carries the conceptual beats—the "Big Leaps" the book keeps returning to. And the data-point pattern threads the AI motif throughout. Together they pace the reader and signal a premium, contemporary brand.
Conceptual collage — "Big Leaps" up the staircaseChapter 3
Illustration & photography — two registers, one paletteeBook pp. 6, 10
Inside the book — selected spreads
Across nineteen pages the system stays in lockstep: navy section dividers, expressive image-led spreads, and clean two-column reads. Click any spread to view it full-size.
Selected spreads — dividers, image-led pages, editorial bodyShowing 04 of 19
— 05 / The proof
Customer chapter
A real program closes the argument.
The final chapter hands the mic to the customer. Wellstar Health System's Chief Talent Officer details a values-led coaching pilot—150 executive directors and AVPs—mapped to the system's three lived values: Serve with Compassion, Pursue Excellence, Honor Every Voice. It's the evidence that turns a thesis into a buying case.
Values, translated into coachable capabilities.
- Serve with Compassion → interpersonal skills, communication, self-awareness.
- Pursue Excellence → developing others, execution, managing change.
- Honor Every Voice → DEI, respect for differences, collaboration.
Wellstar Health System — Chapter 4 case studyeBook pp. 18—20
94%
Average satisfaction with the initial coaching session.
98.5%
Agreed the coaching investment was worth it post-engagement.
150
Executive directors & AVPs in the first strategic cohort.
3+
New coaching programs launched on the pilot's success.
— 06 / Impact
What it did
A read that qualifies, not just attracts.
The eBook became a recurring mid-funnel asset for the year—the thing the sales team sent when an inbound conversation needed substance behind it. And it was produced on an AI-augmented pipeline that compressed production time without dropping the editorial bar: research synthesis, draft scaffolding, and image exploration accelerated, with human craft owning the final layout and voice.
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— The takeaway
AI transformations still require a human touch. So does the content that sells them.
Peter Loebbecke · Sr. Creative Director