The Future of the CMO

Art Direction
Data Visualisation
Typography
Storyboarding

The Future of the CMO is a documentary by Rival Media charting what it actually means to lead marketing right now through conversations with CMOs from Mastercard, Shell, Dr.Scholl's and beyond. I led the visual direction across the entire project: art direction, typography, data visualisation, storyboarding, and social assets. The challenge was building a design system that felt authoritative enough for a C-suite audience but alive enough to hold attention on screen. It became Rival's most-watched video with 60,000+ views.

Objective

Strategy

The goal of The Future of the CMO was to create a visually cohesive and compelling design system that elevates the documentary’s storytelling while appealing directly to a senior-level marketing audience. The creative direction needed to reflect both the strategic seriousness of the subject matter and the dynamic nature of the modern marketing landscape.

My objective as the designer was to:

Establish a clear, consistent visual identity across all documentary assets
Enhance narrative clarity through design—especially in animated explainers and segment transitions
Create professional, high-impact visuals that resonate with CMOs and industry leaders
Extend the documentary’s presence across social media with branded, shareable content

The visual strategy was built around the dual nature of the modern CMO—equal parts strategist and creative. I aimed to reflect this through a design system that felt both authoritative and forward-thinking.

To support Rival Media’s mission of leading marketing innovation, I created a scalable, cohesive visual approach that could flex across editorial interviews, animated explainers, and social media assets. Elegant serif typography anchored the design in credibility, while vibrant gradients and bold layouts injected energy and adaptability.

By pairing traditional cues with contemporary aesthetics, the visuals helped position Rival as a future-facing brand for senior marketing leaders—confident, modern, and insight-driven.

Visual
Language

The visual language was designed to mirror the evolving nature of marketing leadership, combining sophistication with a sense of momentum and change.

At the core of the look and feel was the use of fluid, modern gradients,strategically applied to inject energy, signal transformation, and break away from the rigid aesthetics often seen in finance and corporate branding.

These gradients added depth and movement across title cards, animations, and social content, creating a sense of forward motion that aligned with the documentary’s theme.

This vibrant palette from RIval core brand guideines grounded by elegant serif typography, which added authority and structure, especially in speaker titles and key messaging. Clean layouts, custom iconography, and subtle brand elements tied everything together.

Typography

Le Murmure as the lead typeface was a deliberate choice — it has authority without being stiff, which matched the tone of the documentary exactly. Paired with a clean sans-serif for data and body copy, the combination gave the system enough range to move between a speaker title card and a data visualisation without losing coherence.