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Storytelling and design, working together for clarity
The Global Design team at Colgate-Palmolive set out to do something different: create a printed book that could tell the story of design’s impact across the company and around the world. The goal was to move beyond the typical internal report or slide deck, and build something tangible, lasting, and human.
Over six months, we led the content strategy, writing, editing, and interviewing — shaping a narrative that made design feel not only visible, but vital to the business.
We worked with the Design team to shape the narrative: defining a story arc, interviewing teams across the company, and surfacing examples that showed how design drives value.
Each story reinforced a central theme: design at Colgate-Palmolive isn’t just about how things look but how they work, how they connect, and how they create impact.
Our role was part-journalist, part-strategist, translating design thinking into language that was useful, relevant, and easy to share across disciplines.
The final book served as more than a showcase but a shared reference point across the company. Teams used it to onboard new colleagues, explain design’s role in cross-functional work, and align around a consistent message.
By putting real examples into plain language, the book helped non-designers see how design decisions show up in product development, marketing, and manufacturing. It made design feel less abstract, and more actionable.
Some kind words from Jared Richardson, the Head of Design at Colgate-Palmolive:
"As a researcher, Colin was able to pull stories out of otherwise introverted SMEs (subject matter experts) who are more comfortable doing their incredibly important and impactful work, than talking about it. As a writer, Colin was able to take complex and often not well understood (technical) areas, and synthesize them into relatable, relevant stories that connect with a general audience.
He writes with clarity, bringing the right balance of credibility and emotion to his storytelling. As a content strategist, Colin was able to organize story themes, define audiences, calendar story cadence for sustained engagement, report analytics and effectiveness, define and drive an approval process, partner with multiple teams of diverse interests and priorities (from designers and scientists to legal, to Corporate Communications) to deliver meaningful, impactful, sustainable content to multiple platforms and channels.
Colin also managed a writer for over a year during our collaboration. He is empathic, creative and receptive to feedback. And like all good journalists, Colin is part sponge and part terrier when it comes to telling a good story. He's a pleasure to work with, and I recommend his collaboration and partnership."
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