NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — one of the most respected nonprofit academic medical centers in the country — serves as the primary teaching hospital for two Ivy League institutions: Weill Cornell Medicine at Cornell University and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. As of 2022, it ranks as the seventh-best hospital in the United States and the second-best in the New York City metropolitan area, treating more than 310,000 emergency department patients annually and delivering roughly 15,000 babies each year. Its scale, reputation, and cultural impact make it one of the most influential healthcare institutions in the world.

When Havas was brought in to support the next chapter of NewYork-Presbyterian’s brand presence, strategy distilled the assignment into three core principles:

Refresh. Rebrand. Remind.

These three words encapsulated two months of deep collaboration between NYP and the agency — involving account leadership, strategists, PMs, and cross-disciplinary partners.

By the time I was brought in for my ramp-up, the print leg of the campaign was largely established. Another print design team had developed the full suite of materials — environmental wraps, large-format billboards, 3D laser-cut lettering, and the broader out-of-home print spectrum — all approved enthusiastically by the client. For most, this would be “the job.” But for me, this was exactly where the opportunity began.

I saw immediately that the campaign was missing a critical digital OOH bridge — the connective tissue that brings a modern brand refresh to life across screens and motion environments. Digital wherever digital can live: lobby displays, elevator screens, in-system monitors, app touchpoints, and of course, the ubiquitous LinkNYC kiosks that line the streets of Manhattan. These surfaces are the heartbeat of the NYC visual ecosystem, and NYP deserved an equally modern presence there.

The surprising truth?

NewYork-Presbyterian’s digital footprint at the time consisted almost exclusively of looped PowerPoint slides repurposed for screens. That was their entire digital OOH ecosystem — and they fully expected more of the same.

Not on my watch.

With Adobe After Effects, Acrobat, and Premiere as my toolkit — and with full creative trust from the client and internal teams — I developed an entirely new animated motion system that translated the print refresh into a living, breathing digital language. I created a series of animations that established a branded motion style befitting the scale of NYP: clean, bold, modern, and grounded in the strategic pillars of the refresh.

The work extended from digital signage to video, giving the brand consistency across every surface it touched — static or dynamic. And unlike the looping PowerPoint files that had defined NYP’s digital presence for years, these pieces introduced a true, cohesive motion identity that elevated the brand into the contemporary landscape it deserved.

What began as a print-forward campaign became a fully integrated execution — and I was proud to help deliver the digital dimension that completed the story.