Storytelling and Brand Identity
Filmed on October 19, 2016 at the 2016 AIGA Design Conference
Kainaz Amaria and Cedrick Funches use storytelling to influence brand identity and vice versa. This designer and photojournalist team share how they are helping Vox build smarter brands, uncovering their secrets from the process.
Kainaz Amaria has two words she uses over and over again: story and audience. She’s a visual storyteller who pushes her teams and their collaborators to put the user first and craft experiences that matter. Every day she works at that mission with designers, engineers, and journalists across Vox Media’s eight editorial brands so that, together, they can create stories that add purpose and value to readers’ lives.
Prior to joining Vox Media, as supervising editor on NPR’s visuals team, Amaria was part of an award-winning team of journalists whose web documentary, Planet Money Makes A T-shirt, was recognized for digital innovation by numerous organizations, including the News & Documentary Emmys. Before all the desk jobs, she was a freelance photojournalist based in Mumbai, India. Her clients included The New York Times, Vogue India, and Reuters. In 2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar and completed a short film on the Parsi Zoroastrian community in Mumbai.
Ced Funches started his career in the NBA working as an art director and graphic designer for the Minnesota Timberwolves. A driven entrepreneur, he has founded five companies, the first at age 19. He has continued to design, collaborate, and build products at a high level for print, web, and motion.
In 2011, Funches self-published his first children’s book, A World Without Mothers. Branding, diversity, and user experience shape the lens of his design work now as he serves as the executive director of design at Vox Media.
