Communication design, presented & practiced
The craft gets better when knowledge is shared.
Talks, workshops, and webinars on subjects ranging from human-centered AI and prompting to storytelling and conference recaps. Presenting is part of the practice: it's how teams build fluency, and how I keep mine sharp.
INTERNAL TALK
VP Design Review: Conversation Design
Introducing conversation design as a discipline to our leadership group: what it is, why it isn't just copywriting, and how research, product, engineering, and legal each use the standards. This is where the vocabulary that later became the Helix standards was first road-tested.
WORKSHOP SERIES
Storytelling for Results
A workshop series on structuring narratives that move stakeholders. Our first participants included product managers, with the goal of improving product storytelling for the broader organization.
WEBINAR RECAP
Community of Practice: UX Storytelling
A webinar recap on UX storytelling, distilled and re-presented for the team: how narrative structure turns research into something stakeholders remember, and act on.
RECENT TOPICS
Human-centered AI
AI prompting
Conversation design
Storytelling for results
Conference recaps
The archive
Before machines talked, the work did.
Brand, editorial, packaging, broadcast, type, and healthcare experience design. A selected cut.
VH1 · Broadcast design for “Behind the Music”
Received Silver award from Broadcast Designers Association.
Infographic design · U.S. Cellular
Turning philanthropy reports, survey results, and advocacy into data stories people actually read.
Direct mail campaigns for the Spice House
Seasonal catalogues and mailers promoting essential and rare spice varietals and proprietary rubs and blends.
Other cuts
Packaging, editorial, type, broadcast, journey mapping, art. Different cuts of the same animal.
Mark Shale · Seasonal catalogue design, direct mail.
CocoTea · CD packaging · Motown Records. Art direction, design & typeface design.
COVID triage journey map · Healthcare experience design under pressure.
Divine · Font design · My handwriting, turned into a typeface with the late Frank Heine. Available through [T-26] Digital Type Foundry.
U.S. Cellular · Window clings · 2018 · Design & creative direction for a leadership conference environment.
Leadership conference presentation · 2026 · Designed for the EVP & Chief Strategy and Growth Officer — presenting the year's strategic imperatives to VP-and-above market leaders.
Leadership conference presentation · 2026 · Designed for the President & CEO, addressing market leaders including the C-suite.
“Daily Dose of Truth” · Broadcast design for anti-smoking campaign.
World Relief · 70-year commemorative book detailing the history of the nonprofit organization.
Leica Biosystems · Product brochure.
Kaiju · Font design · A modernization of woodblock type used for posters in the early 1900s.
Spex · Website · 2008 · Art direction for the eyewear retailer's site, as Marketing Director and Designer.
U.S. Cellular · Internal comms · 2019 · Email blast to associates celebrating the year's charitable giving.
Showtime Next · Broadcast design · 2001
Channel identity for Showtime's Next. The theme, “Cute Fluffy Animals,” sent plush stand-ins out into the real world — and took me to Hong Kong and Las Vegas to shoot the footage.
F2 · Glass design collaboration · 2001–2008
A glassblowing collaboration with my late husband Peter, who taught me the craft. Together we designed and made lighting, sculpture, and vessels — earning press, selling to collectors, and reaching retailers in Chicago, LA, and Houston — from F2 Lab, the gallery we built in Chicago's West Loop as part of the city's arts community.
F2 LAB, WEST LOOP · THE BUILDOUT, THE HOT SHOP, THE PRESS
IN THE PRESS · CHICAGO MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2005 · DWELL, NOVEMBER 2007 · CHICAGO TRIBUNE, AUGUST 2004
© 2026 Marilyn Frank