Outlook Branding — Visual Identity at Scale

Project: Outlook Icon Refresh (phase 1)

My Role

Senior Design Lead and Design Manager leading creative direction, stakeholder alignment, and team management for Outlook’s icon evolution.

Opportunity

Led the creative direction for Outlook’s new Windows app icon as part of the One Outlook unification effort. With 400M+ global users, this high-stakes initiative evolved Outlook’s identity while ensuring brand continuity across consumer and enterprise surfaces.

Process

Strategy & Leadership: Authored the creative brief defining design principles and customer value propositions. Partnered with studio management and Fluent Design teams for operational alignment.

Design Exploration: Managed 2 direct reports and collaborated with 4 Fluent designers to explore 100+ icon directions. Through iterative reviews and research with global audiences, we refined to 2 final options.

Execution & Quality: Facilitated hands-on working sessions for rapid feedback synthesis. Led accessibility reviews at small sizes (16–32px) across light/dark themes. Coordinated with engineering teams for seamless integration.

Results

Launched globally across Windows platforms to 400M+ users. Praised internally for clarity, accessibility, and global resonance. Established foundation for brand coherence across the M365 ecosystem.

Impact: Synthesized complex stakeholder feedback while maintaining creative vision across design, research, PM, engineering, and executive teams. Set new standard for icon quality and accessibility at Microsoft scale.

Additional platform rollouts and business metrics under embargo pending public announcements.