Art Direction
Messaging Strategy
Project Management
Video Production
Public libraries are among America’s most trusted public institutions, yet the work of librarians is often reduced to books and quiet spaces. In reality, they are educators, advocates, first responders, and community connectors, helping people navigate everything from healthcare and education to economic opportunity. At a time of growing debate over the role of libraries, there was an opportunity to tell a different story about the people at their heart, and the ways they expand access to knowledge and opportunity while strengthening the communities they serve.
Working with the American Library Association and Academy Award-winning production studio Smartypants Pictures, I helped transform the I Love My Librarian Award, co-sponsored by the New York Public Library and Carnegie Corporation of New York, now renamed to Andrew Carnegie Foundation, from an annual recognition program into a broader year-round multiplatform storytelling campaign celebrating librarians as civic heroes whose service improves lives and brings communities together.
Photography by Thomas Ingersoll
Through stories spanning rural, suburban, and urban communities, For the Love of Librarians is a love letter to librarians that reveals the often-unseen ways they strengthen and serve their communities, reframing the profession through the people who live it every day.
In collaboration with our social media strategy lead, senior writer, and program communications specialist, I oversaw the art direction and multimedia strategy for this campaign, the production of a 13-part video series by an Oscar-winning film studio, worked with our senior writer on refining the copy, and led end-to-end project and stakeholder management for For the Love of Librarians.
Photography by Thomas Ingersoll
Inspired by superhero movie posters and character-driven photography, the powerful portraiture at the heart of the campaign reimagined librarians as heroes, celebrating the extraordinary impact of these everyday public servants against the architectural backdrop of the Phoenix Public Library in Arizona.
The photography shown here, produced by Phoenix-based photographer Thomas Ingersoll, formed the visual foundation of this 360 campaign.
The campaign was designed as a year-round storytelling series spanning 10 social shorts, three short documentaries, with concept pitches for out-of-home and community activations, including bookmarks and special-edition library cards at each featured librarian’s library.
The 13-part video series paired three short documentaries with 10 social shorts, featuring librarians from across the country who were nominated by their communities for changing lives.
Created in partnership with Smartypants Pictures and the American Library Association, the films followed a bookmobile librarian serving families displaced by the Maui wildfires, a West Virginia librarian helping immigrant students find belonging through books in their native languages, and a Delaware librarian using literacy to create hope and opportunity for young people in detention.
Working within a lean, remote production model, I worked closely with Smartypants to shape the narrative direction, guide interview strategy, manage the internal feedback and review process, art direct the photography, and personally execute the campaign assets to promote the films. The result was an intimate, authentic series that brought audiences closer to the public servants whose work makes the public library one of America’s most trusted institutions.
Photography
Thomas Ingersoll
Smartypants
Anna Rowe, Eric Nichols, Amy Shand
Carnegie
Angely Montilla, Daniel Um, Kelly Devine., Wilfred Chan, Catriona Whalley.