Bringing Unmastered to Life: Art Direction for a Cultural Platform
ART DIRECTION
(un)mastered is a multi-platform creative project I co-founded with my fiancé, Hadi. Rooted in community, curiosity, and creative growth, it explores the nonlinear journey of becoming through podcasts, digital zines, and storytelling.
We created The (un)mastered tapes, a podcast featuring honest conversations with creatives, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders navigating their path to mastery.
As Art Director and Designer, I developed (un)mastered’s visual identity across all touchpoints—shaping evolving systems for the podcast, social content, and zines. My role bridges strategy and storytelling, ensuring each brand expression feels intentional and accessible.
At the heart of the brand was a human-centered, intentionally imperfect visual language that reflected the project’s personal roots. I led the art direction by centering both myself and Hadi in the brand narrative, cultivating authenticity and connection.
Key elements included:
Handwritten typography (my own), used across visuals to emphasize intimacy and honesty
A tone that balanced depth with warmth, mirroring the vulnerability of our conversations
A flexible system that adapts across mediums while staying rooted in curiosity, connection, and creative growth
Podcast: The (un)mastered tapes
For the podcast, I was responsible for both creative and production elements, ensuring the brand experience carried through every touchpoint—from visuals to audio.
Social Media Design: Created graphics for promotional posts, episode launches, and behind-the-scenes content, ensuring consistency in tone and visual identity across platforms.
Cover Art: Designed the main podcast cover and individual episode covers using our handwritten type and a strong, editorial-inspired layout style.
Photography: Shot portraits of our guests and behind-the-scenes imagery to accompany episodes and social content.
Video Production: Captured and edited video content for selected episodes and teaser clips, designed for reels, stories, and web.
Audio Production: Handled basic audio editing and mixing to ensure clarity, tone, and emotional resonance in each episode.
Set Design: Created an intimate, cozy set space that reflected the podcast’s tone—designed for both visual storytelling and sound quality.
OUTCOME
The visual identity of (un)mastered has helped carve out a recognizable, resonant space for the brand. Its flexible design system invites both consistency and play, allowing the platform to grow while staying rooted in its purpose. As Art Director, I’ve helped shape a creative environment where form follows feeling—and where design is as much about reflection as it is about polish.
Digital Zines
Each (un)mastered magazine was treated as a standalone expression—with its own design language, while still sitting under the larger umbrella of the brand.
Custom branding for each issue: I developed a new mini-brand identity for every zine, adapting the aesthetic to suit the subject matter, tone, and featured contributors.
Editorial Design: Designed full layouts using Adobe InDesign, focusing on visual pacing, rhythm, and readability for both desktop and mobile readers.
Typography: Selected and paired typefaces intentionally to enhance tone, clarity, and emotion—blending structure with expressive moments.
Content Creation: Contributed written content across issues, including introductions, contributor bios, and thematic framing that helped ground each issue’s narrative.
Design Systems: Built templates and visual guidelines for contributors, ensuring their work could be presented thoughtfully within the broader publication design.
