• Editorial
  • Campaigns

Korn Ferry

Freelance creative — editorial design & illustration

Concept-led editorial artwork and a reflective leadership book for a global organisational consulting firm.

A stack of Korn Ferry Briefings magazine issues with the green glitch statue cover artwork for the Whiplash Leadership feature.

Overview

As a freelance creative within Korn Ferry’s marketing team, I worked across brand-led editorial and campaign materials — including the Whiplash Leadership feature artwork for Briefings magazine and the design of CEO Gary Burnison’s 5 Graces of Leadership book. Each required concept development, visual exploration and polished final artwork across print and digital.

Client
Korn Ferry
Role
Freelance creative — editorial design & illustration
Discipline
Editorial, Campaigns
Timeframe
2021–2022

Outputs

  • Briefings magazine feature artwork
  • Cover design & feature illustrations
  • Glitch typography & digital overlays
  • 5 Graces of Leadership book design
  • Alternative book-format explorations

The challenge

What the work had to solve

For the Briefings feature, the challenge was to represent leadership without leaning on predictable corporate imagery or introducing bias around gender, age, ethnicity or industry. The 5 Graces book had a tight production timeline, a fixed page count and a Christmas release — and needed to balance the polish of a leadership publication with the warmth of a personal gift book.

The solution

What Maria designed

I developed a visual route using ancient statues as neutral representations of leadership, bringing gravitas, legacy and human complexity to the subject, while glitch-style overlays added tension, pace and a contemporary editorial edge. For the book, I created a restrained system using curated black-and-white photography, quiet pacing, handwritten-style pull quotes and generous white space — supporting the reflective tone while giving it a personal, giftable quality.

Selected outputs

The work

  • Feature illustration using classical statues fragmented with green glitch overlays to represent leadership under pressure.
    Whiplash Leadership feature artwork — statues treated with glitch overlays for tension and pace.
  • Second Briefings feature illustration combining statue imagery with layered digital glitch typography.
    Statue imagery as a neutral, non-biased representation of leadership.
  • Final Briefings magazine cover for issue 52 with the Whiplash Leadership headline.
    Final cover — “The heavy cost of the C-suite changing its mind so often.”
  • Two-page editorial spread from the Briefings feature article.
    Feature spread carrying the glitch language into the article layout.
  • Dust jacket design for the book 5 Graces of Leadership by Gary Burnison.
    5 Graces of Leadership — a restrained, giftable book for the Christmas release.
  • Hardcover mockup of the 5 Graces of Leadership book.
    Calm, considered cover treatment.
  • Inner page spreads of the 5 Graces of Leadership book showing black-and-white photography and pull quotes.
    Curated black-and-white photography, quiet pacing and generous white space.
  • Alternative diary-style book format exploration for 5 Graces of Leadership.
    Format exploration — a more traditional, diary-style route.

Design value

Shows editorial judgement, concept development and the ability to move from raw exploration to polished, on-brand artwork across two very different tones — energetic feature work and calm, reflective book design.

  • Editorial design
  • Concept development
  • Illustration
  • Book design
  • Typography

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