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INSIDE OUTSHIFT
7 min read
Published on 11/19/2024
Last updated on 11/19/2024
How Sarah Sauzeropf elevates Outshift’s brand with visual storytelling
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It might surprise you that an emerging tech incubator has a team dedicated to visual storytelling, brand, and creative assets. While Outshift by Cisco is focused on incubating what’s next for tech, future-forward techies have a wide variety of skillsets.
Sarah Sauerzopf’s expertise in visual storytelling and creative design plays an important role in shaping the incubator’s brand identity. As a Content Designer, Sauerzopf’s ensures that every touchpoint is visually engaging, consistent with our mission, and connects with our audience. Her ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple and compelling way gives Outshift a distinctive voice in the market.
The role of mentorship in Sarah’s emerging tech journey
But how does a designer find their way into emerging tech? For Sauerzopf, it started back in college with an interest in animation and character design. When the closest course offered was graphic design, a friend encouraged her to pursue it. Drawing inspiration from art, comics, and cinema played a significant role in Sauerzopf’s growth as a designer, allowing her to develop a unique and bold style. Around this same time, she met Outshift’s Brand Creative Lead, Cindy Duong, over roller skating.
“Cindy graduated from the same program and told me that towards the end, when you work on your thesis, you need to find an advisor/mentor. She offered to be mine and that's how we built a relationship. I also told her about my background, so she recognized that my illustration skills were strong and overlapped within my graphic design skills,” Sauerzopf says.
Sauerzopf credits the importance of mentors throughout her design career journey. Duong has provided her crucial feedback and been a sounding board as she’s refined her skills and grew in her career. Sometimes, she has had to reel back her creative expression to ensure that her work is brand-aligned. Duong has provided her with valuable feedback and has guided her in how to channel her creativity in a way that remains true to the Outshift brand.
One project featuring Sauerzopf’s work is on The Breakdown, a series on the Outshift Blog that simplifies technical terms and concepts and explains them with visuals. Sauerzopf worked on the header images and infographics in the text.
“It was fun working on brainstorming and translating The Breakdown blog headers. Cindy came up with the look and feel inspired by the idea of pasteboards and assembling information “on the cutting room floor.” This raw, roughly edited, and human assemblage of information represents the way we are disseminating complex high technology topics into blogs for you, our readers,” she says.
She has also designed webpages for Outshift and enjoys figuring out what flows best for the audience. This has been one of Sauerzopf s biggest challenges. Web design wasn’t an area of focus for her. But with Duong’s mentorship, her skillset has improved, and it has become an area she’s excited to grow in.
The creative process takes shape
Each project is different. However, the creative process is something Sauerzopf thrives on. The process begins with brainstorming, crafting storyboards, and collaborating with copywriting. There is always a focal point to ensure the team is telling the story that both the design and the copy are meant to portray.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “It’s like a writer’s room where no idea is too wild.”
From there, Sauerzopf starts to source imagery and design the layout, “I love to iterate. I think that’s probably my favorite part of the process when it comes to designing, because there’s just infinite ways to go about whatever I’m creating.”
There is a difference in how illustrators and graphic designers approach a project, however. Graphic designers tend to focus on the minute and meticulous details. On the other hand, illustrators have vivid imaginations, as they take a blank page and come up with bespoke visual art that engages the reader further into the content’s meaning.
Art and comic books fuel inspiration
In school, Sauzeropf worked at a comic book shop. There she explored collecting comics based on cover art and learned about independent graphic novels. She found the designs to be innovative with their illustration and storylines.
“I'm not a comic book artist or a writer,” she says. “But I do think Scott McCloud’s gutter theory from, ‘Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,’ can be applied to anything. I've had projects where I needed to draw up a storyboard, and I applied the gutter theory, which lets the reader fill in the missing action themselves, like imagining drama or comedy that's implied but not shown. I understood that I shouldn't give the entire story frame by frame, as the reader's imagination does half the storyelling, which makes the experience more personal and impactful. I had to be methodical and make sure I was giving enough (but also not too little) to the imagination.”
While inspiration is everywhere, Sarah says a few of her favorite artists are James Jean, Annie Atkins, Fiona Staples, and Brian K Vaughan. Artists like James Jean are often at the forefront of aesthetic trends with his bold use of color and movement within his art.
As part of a brand awareness campaign, Sauzeropf designed five Forbes magazine covers that featured core characteristics of Outshift’s brand and style blended with inspiration from artists who inspire her. With a background in illustration, Sauzeropf brings a unique approach to her designs – making her the perfect fit to create magazine covers that were rooted in metaphorical surrealism.
It can benefit designers to pull inspiration from a variety of artists to become aware of new techniques, but also to connect emotionally with art outside of their projects. An emotional connection can fill the cup of creativity, which they can then pour into their work, increasing the emotional engagement in their pieces.
Career growth advice for aspiring creatives
As Outshift has given Sauzeropf the freedom and guidance to grow her skills and areas of interest, she’s excited to continue her bold exploration of animation and to learn more about video production and web design. Sauzeropf shares that being a creative designer in emerging tech is like riding a rollercoaster that someone’s still building as you’re strapped in.
“There's an energy in tech that’s all about breaking ground and moving fast, which matches the creative mindset: both constantly evolve and push you to think in ways that haven’t been mapped out yet,” she says. “But what I love most is how both fields thrive on curiosity—whether I’m designing a visual or brainstorming a strategy, it's about exploring new possibilities. I get to bring the human touch to technology and help it speak a visual language people connect with, which feels like a rewarding challenge.”
For those wanting to follow a similar path, Sauzeropf says, “Don’t feel like you have to master every technique while in school. You will have the chance to learn from each project and challenge. As the trends in art change, so will the styles and techniques used on websites and creative production. Instead, focus on getting enough rest and practicing agility in your art so you are prepared to meet the challenges you will face in your career.”
Curious about how Outshift’s creative team brings their vision to life? Take a behind-the-scenes look at how the team visually tells the story of AI’s role in amplifying human potential.
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