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Creating Cohesion — A scalable visual system for Amazon Music’s largest playlist collections.

Amazon Music needed a unified visual approach for four major playlist series — Fresh, Hits, Classics, and Spatial Audio. These collections together accounted for over 600 playlists across the service and represented a massive opportunity to improve brand cohesion. My role was to design distinct yet connected visual systems for each series, while building evergreen assets and marketing materials that could scale across digital and out-of-home channels.

systems thinking, large-scale impact, and cross-team collaboration

Amazon Music Creative Studio

The Challenge

The previous playlist visuals lacked consistency, which limited their impact across Amazon Music’s platform and marketing touchpoints. The challenge was to create cohesive designs for four unique series while honoring Amazon’s gradient-heavy, blur-forward brand guidelines. Each series had to feel part of the same family while maintaining its own personality, with the Fresh series standing out as the boldest due to its large and growing audience.

the Process

The project spanned six months and began with close collaboration with stakeholders and playlist programmers to gather series goals, audience insights, and rollout timelines. I worked iteratively with partners and a senior art director, ensuring feedback was integrated throughout multiple review rounds.

 

Design execution included:

  • Evergreen designs for each series
  • Photoshop & Figma production files
  • Social media templates
  • In-app barkers & newsletter assets
  • Amazon website placements

 

I presented the design strategies to programming partners, highlighting how each series fit into the larger brand while maintaining distinct energy. Collaboration was key — I facilitated efficient communication across design, marketing, and programming, ensuring alignment at every stage.

 

Notably, this project was one of the first to help transition the creative studio’s workflow to Figma, setting a precedent for future production efficiencies.

the Outcome

The final series delivered a dramatic improvement in playlist presentation, elevating Amazon Music’s overall look and feel with a cohesive, brand-forward identity. The Fresh series stood out louder and more dynamic, while Hits, Classics, and Spatial Audio carried complementary designs that felt unified across the service.

 

The impact:

  • Over 600 playlists updated across Amazon Music’s ecosystem
  • A more cohesive and professional service experience for millions of listeners
  • Positive reception from partners, stakeholders, and team members, who praised both the design quality and the massive production lift

 

A smoother production process thanks to the adoption of Figma workflows

This project set a new standard for how playlist visuals were developed at scale, balancing creativity with consistency.