For the Love of Librarians Campaign
Uplifting America’s librarians as unsung heroes.
2025 · CARNEGIE CORP. · CREATIVE/ART DIRECTION / DIGITAL DESIGN
Every year, the American Library Association honors ten nominated librarians as the most beloved librarians across America. This year, Carnegie launched a multimedia campaign to spotlight their contributions to American society.
The Scope of Work
In support of the American Library Association and their annual I Love My Librarian Award, known as the “Oscars” for librarians — in which communities nominate their librarians for national recognition — Carnegie led the development of a mass content marketing campaign to change narratives about librarians at a critical time and to uplift them as everyday superheroes who are more than just book keepers — they are often the ones holding communities together.
From helping the Maui community heal in the aftermath of devastating wildfires to bringing hope to incarcerated youth to repatriating indigenous artifacts back to their rightful communities, librarians have some of the most powerful stories you’ve never heard. There’s a quiet humility and courage to their work. While these librarians might not describe themselves as “special” — that they are just doing their jobs — their communities, the ones who nominated them for the award, see them as superheroes. This tension, the gap between how librarians see themselves — as quiet public servants just doing their jobs — and how their communities see them — as larger than life heroes who go above and beyond for them everyday — is at the heart of my vision and art direction for this campaign set to launch in late May 2025.
As Carnegie’s first Manager of Design and Multimedia, I oversaw the creative direction/production for the 2025 campaign. I managed a $200k video production project — working with a production company to produce a video series featuring the stories of ten of these librarians from across the country, and art directed a powerful portrait series aimed at challenging the public’s pre-concieved notions of what a librarian is and does — flying to Phoenix, AZ for an annual librarian conference to oversee a day-long photo shoot at the Phoenix Central Library with a singular goal of depicting these librarians as unsung heroes of American democracy. In addition, I designed the social assets including for paid social, the email announcement, designed and built the landing page, and out-of-home advertising for the campaign.
My Role
Art Direction
Video Production
Project Management
Copy Strategy
Digital/Social Design
Web Design
The 2024 Portrait Series
Carnegie has gotten into the rhythm of producing an annual campaign around the I Love My Librarian Award. 2024 was the first campaign, with many assets, such as photography, commissioned before I had started the job. The difference between the 2024 campaign — before I started — and 2025 — when I took over and oversaw creative direction for it is night and day.
The photographs below showcase how photography was treated as an afterthought, rather than a core part of the story. They were nothing more than corporate headshots that were limited in use and story potential, and that did not do any justice to the impact that librarians have on their communities. I wanted to change this.
After - 2025 Portrait Series
I convinced my team to commission a talented local Phoenix photographer to take this year’s campaign portraits to the next level. The visual style and art direction of the photography I was pitching was unlike anything Carnegie had previously done and far more ambitious than of its previous photo projects, so it was a gamble. But, it was a gamble I was prepared to make because the photography had to be the foundation and centerpiece of this campaign. Gladly, it was a gamble that paid off.
Featured Selects
Social Campaign
Taking inspiration from the superhero concept, the social and advertising creative for this campaign were designed to evoke superhero movie posters, with each librarian powerfully posing front and center — framed in a way in which they are popping out of their backgrounds to communicate the larger than life impact they’ve had on their communities. Not only did I develop the art direction for this campaign, but I also led the copy strategy because both the visuals and copy needed to work in unison to have a powerful effect on audiences.
A goal of the social assets and the creative direction of the whole campaign in general, beyond the routine performance metrics, human-centered design — to put the humans, the librarians front and center. To celebrate them. To honor them. To recognize them, and their efforts to uplift humanity in turn. The intention behind the design of these digital “posters” was to enable shareability, and encourage the librarians’ institutions and their communities to share these graphics in celebration of them.
Paid Social Creative
Social Toolkit Graphics
Email Marketing Design
Because the librarians who were honored as part of the award come from across the country, to make production as cost and time efficient as possible, while fostering a more intimate vibe to the videos, compared to our 2024 video campaign I managed which was highly produced (shown below for comparison), we tried a different approach in our effort to better reach communities.
We used Streamyard to record interviews with three librarians who took us behind the scenes of their work. From a librarian who helped heal her Maui community in the aftermath of wildfires to a librarian who brings hope to incarcerated youth in Delaware to a librarian who helps immigrant students feel at home in their new country, their stories demonstrate the power that librarians have in strengthening communities, and even creating them.
As the creative lead for this campaign, I oversaw the end-to-end production of a 13 part video series featuring 10 librarians from across the country.
2025 Video Series
2024 Video Series (The Secret Life of Librarians)
Landing Page Design
Out of Home Advertising
As part of the next phase of the campaign — with the goal being to move beyond digital audiences and expecting them to come to us to reaching communities where they are, out in the world — I pitched and designed creative for an out-of-home marketing campaign.
I envision it playing out across different platforms and touchpoints, from transportation ads while folks are on the go to templates for limited edition library cards for patrons at each of the honorees’ libraries that convey a sense of civic pride. The goal being to rally the communities of these librarians ‚ and the nation — around them at a time when librarians and libraries are increasingly impacted by the negative effects of political polarization.
