Jamie Sage is a London-based visual designer and art director. His work can be found on and offline.
Brand, Editorial, Social, Art Direction, Photography
The Challenge
Tripadvisor's marketing team managed numerous email campaigns across various markets, leading to inconsistencies in design and inefficiencies in production. Each campaign often required creating new designs from scratch, resulting in repetitive work and a lack of cohesive branding.
The absence of a standardised email design system made it challenging to maintain visual consistency and streamline the creation process with added mistakes in production.
The absence of a standardised email design system made it challenging to maintain visual consistency and streamline the creation process with added mistakes in production.
Objectives
• Develop a centralised email design system to ensure brand consistency across all campaigns.
• Reduce the time and effort required to produce new email campaigns.
• Reduce the time and effort required to produce new email campaigns.
• Enhance collaboration between designers, developers, and marketers.
• Allow creatives to concentrate on creating impactful visuals
• Allow creatives to concentrate on creating impactful visuals
Approach
• Audit existing emails: Reviewed past email campaigns to identify common components and design patterns.
• Establish design guidelines: Defined typography, color schemes, button styles, and layout structures consistent with Tripadvisor's brand.
• Create modular components: Developed reusable components (e.g., headers, footers, content blocks) to be used across various email templates.
• Establish design guidelines: Defined typography, color schemes, button styles, and layout structures consistent with Tripadvisor's brand.
• Create modular components: Developed reusable components (e.g., headers, footers, content blocks) to be used across various email templates.
• Implement in design tools: We built the system within Figma, allowing for easy access and updates by the design team.
• Collaborate with development: Worked closely with developers to ensure the design system translated effectively into code, maintaining responsiveness and accessibility.
• Collaborate with development: Worked closely with developers to ensure the design system translated effectively into code, maintaining responsiveness and accessibility.
Outcomes
• Consistency: Achieved a unified look and feel across all email communications, reinforcing brand identity.
• Efficiency: Reduced email production time, allowing the team to focus on strategic initiatives.
• Efficiency: Reduced email production time, allowing the team to focus on strategic initiatives.
• Scalability: Enabled quick adaptation for different markets and campaigns without compromising design integrity.
• Collaboration: Improved cross-functional teamwork through shared understanding and resources.
• Collaboration: Improved cross-functional teamwork through shared understanding and resources.
email design
Led the design and development of emails for both campaign-based and always-on global content. Created scalable templates for automated series as well as one-off sends, tailored to different stages of the customer journey—from awareness to conversion.
Big Trip – Global Monthly Inspiration Series – Led the design of a monthly email series focused on driving top-of-funnel engagement. The primary CTA directed users to an editorial-style article featuring curated travel inspiration, while secondary CTAs promoted bookable experiences and hotels.
Originally built as a sliced design, the template was iteratively refined through testing to align with Tripadvisor’s CRM design system and ensure scalability across global markets.
Originally built as a sliced design, the template was iteratively refined through testing to align with Tripadvisor’s CRM design system and ensure scalability across global markets.
Reco by Tripadvisor Campaign – Designed and developed an educational and promotional email journey to drive awareness and adoption of Reco, Tripadvisor’s personalized trip planning service. The campaign introduced users to the concept of Trip Designers, highlighting key benefits and use cases through a mix of lifecycle and engagement-focused emails.
Swing into Spring – We created a seasonal campaign aimed at increasing pre-trip conversions for Spring and Easter travel. Emails combined promotional messaging with inspirational content, surfacing timely deals and bookable experiences to activate intent and drive transactions within targeted user segments.
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App Download Campaign – Led design for a global push to increase app adoption. Messaging emphasised the unique features of the Tripadvisor app— authentic traveller reviews, saved itineraries, and in-destination discovery—to move users from desktop to mobile and strengthen long-term engagement. We also produced paid social video as part of this campaign.
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App Download Campaign – Led design for a global push to increase app adoption. Messaging emphasised the unique features of the Tripadvisor app— authentic traveller reviews, saved itineraries, and in-destination discovery—to move users from desktop to mobile and strengthen long-term engagement. We also produced paid social video as part of this campaign.
EU Heritage Month – Designed a regionally-targeted (localised) campaign to support bookings around European Heritage Month. Emails were tailored by market to highlight relevant tours, experiences, cities, and hotel partners—focusing on high-interest cultural themes and mid-funnel engagement strategies.
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Destination Spotlight – Evolved from a coutry wide, review-led send to a revenue-focused city specific campaign promoting bookable hotels, tours, and restaurants. Redesigned from sliced images to a fully design system-compliant layout, improving accessibility, scalability, and performance.
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Destination Spotlight – Evolved from a coutry wide, review-led send to a revenue-focused city specific campaign promoting bookable hotels, tours, and restaurants. Redesigned from sliced images to a fully design system-compliant layout, improving accessibility, scalability, and performance.
Credits email: Senior Manager Design: Jamie Sage. Designers: Hannah Brus, Sharmila Roseli, ZQ Tan. Writers: Jamie Tan, Joseph Koh, Michelle Neo. Creative Directors: Malvika Menon, John McCluaghlin
Trips campaign email & lander
Designed a performance-driven email campaign to promote Tripadvisor’s Trips feature, with localised versions tailored different markets. The emails included an animated GIF to boost engagement and click-throughs.
Users were directed to a dedicated landing page designed using components from the global design system, allowing for a clean, modular layout that minimized engineering effort. This streamlined approach enabled a quick turnaround and gave space to showcase strong, engaging visuals.
Users were directed to a dedicated landing page designed using components from the global design system, allowing for a clean, modular layout that minimized engineering effort. This streamlined approach enabled a quick turnaround and gave space to showcase strong, engaging visuals.
Credits trips: Senior Manager Design: Jamie Sage. Designers: Hannah Brus, Sharmila Roseli. Creative Directors: Malvika Menon