CIFAR Strategic Plan
Strategic Planning | Communications Strategy | Brand Strategy | Creative Direction
In 2024, CIFAR launched a new organizational strategy setting out its direction for advancing research and addressing complex global challenges.
As Senior Manager, Strategy & Design, I represented the Communications team on CIFAR’s strategic planning committee, bringing a communications and brand perspective into the development of the strategy itself. I then played a key role in translating that organizational direction into a clear and cohesive communications and visual experience for internal and external audiences.
Strategic Planning & Communications
As a member of the strategic planning committee, I contributed to discussions shaping the strategy while considering how CIFAR’s direction would ultimately need to be understood and communicated by its audiences.
Representing Communications throughout the process meant connecting organizational strategy with questions of narrative, audience, brand and implementation. As the strategy moved toward launch, I worked with colleagues across CIFAR to help translate complex institutional priorities into an accessible and engaging communications approach.
Brand & Creative Direction
The strategy needed a visual expression that felt forward-looking while remaining distinctly CIFAR.
I helped develop the creative direction for the strategy, bringing together researcher photography, scientific imagery, typography and CIFAR’s visual identity to connect the organization’s ambitions with the people and research behind them.
The strategy was conceived as a digital-first experience, allowing content and imagery to work together in a format that made CIFAR’s priorities clear and accessible.
I worked with designers and internal partners to develop and refine the visual approach and ensure that the creative execution supported both the strategy’s messaging and CIFAR’s broader brand.
Bringing the Strategy to Audiences
The visual and communications system was developed to work across multiple channels.
Elements from the digital strategy were adapted for social media and other communications, creating consistency around the strategy’s launch and extending its visual identity beyond the primary experience.
A printed version was also developed for key external stakeholders, translating the digital-first approach into a physical publication while maintaining the same narrative and visual language.
The Result
The final strategy brought CIFAR’s organizational direction, communications and brand together within a cohesive experience designed to make its priorities accessible to a range of audiences.
By involving Communications in the strategic planning process and carrying that perspective through to the strategy’s creative expression and rollout, the project connected organizational decision-making with how CIFAR ultimately communicated its future to its stakeholders.
My Role
Strategic planning committee member (Communications team representative)
Communications strategy
Brand strategy
Strategic messaging development
Cross-functional collaboration
Creative direction & visual strategy
Digital-first communications
Social media creative direction
Stakeholder communications