Full Website and Brand Redesign – ITVS

Project Overview

ITVS is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that funds and supports independent documentary filmmakers, and is best known for its long-running PBS series Independent Lens. When the decision was made to pursue a full redesign, the website was outdated, built on a legacy Ruby on Rails system, and no longer reflected the organization’s evolved brand or mission. ITVS had new leadership and a clear need to better tell their story online, including developing an entirely new visual identity from the ground up. As the digital marketing specialist and website manager at ITVS, I had been managing the site for two years and became the internal point of contact leading the project, partnering with Teal Media, a full-service creative agency, to bring it to life.

My Role

I served as the primary liaison between ITVS and Teal Media’s 15-person agency team, managing day-to-day communication, feedback cycles, and internal coordination across nearly 30 stakeholders spanning the C-suite, content, development, and tech teams. I kept the project on track through weekly check-ins and managed deliverable reviews at every phase, from discovery and brand strategy to wireframes, development, and launch.

The Process

The project ran across 7 phases over 14 months: research and discovery, brand strategy and messaging, visual identity, website strategy, design, development and content migration, and launch. Teal led the creative and technical execution across all phases. On the internal side, I coordinated stakeholder participation by identifying the right people across the organization and externally, including filmmakers, funders, and partners, doing initial outreach, and connecting them with Teal for focus groups, user testing sessions, brand audits, and wireframe reviews. I also served as the ongoing internal feedback loop, making sure Teal always had what they needed to keep moving. Post-handoff, I sourced and selected 90% of the photos across the site and manually built over half of the pages using the CMS tools Teal developed for us.

The project wasn’t without its challenges. The internal team shifted in size mid-project, and toward the final stretch, ITVS faced significant federal defunding that put real pressure on the organization and the project’s future. Navigating that uncertainty while keeping the work moving, on scope, and on budget is something I’m genuinely proud of. We launched on time and on budget.

The Results

• 12% increase in engagement rate
• 24% increase in session duration
• Average search position improved from 15.1 to 7.91