What do GBH, MassBio, the Peabody Essex Museum, Boston Athenaeum, Ocean State Media, and The Trustees of Reservations all have in common? They’re New England–based legacy organizations that have turbocharged for the evolving digital age thanks to a six-person team helmed by Marblehead local, Mark Minelli. “One of the wonderful things about working with organizations in New England is that there is this rich history,” says Minelli. “There’s a big difference between acknowledging and leveraging that history and being trapped by it. We typically get hired at pivotal moments for organizations, and we try to figure out how to position them and give them the tools to build on that success.”
Growing up, Minelli was always drawing something, which led him to attend design school. After graduating, he began his career at a firm in Boston and subsequently launched a freelance venture out of his Somerville apartment. Within two years, he and his then-girlfriend, now wife and fellow designer, realized it was time to relocate to a bigger space at Fort Point Channel. Since he founded Minelli Inc. in 1988, Mark has encouraged his team to lead with an imaginative approach. “You get out of design school and want to understand the context by which you’re trying to design something,” Minelli says. “Our designers are asked to write out their ideas, to see the research, and do some interviews. I think it helps create a climate for success.”
The Minelli approach has indeed led to one success after another. Take GBH, a “500-pound gorilla of public media.” The project was monumental: bringing a well-respected legacy brand into the digital age. Minelli partnered with the National Public Radio affiliate at a critical juncture. Significant brand decisions transcended cosmetic tweaks. They helped the radio station embrace a position of authority on the global stage. Radio stations east of the Mississippi take on a W, and to the west they get a K. Formerly known as WGBH, they dropped the W as the station had amassed a global audience for its massive library of streaming content, and arcane designations no longer seemed relevant.
“What difference does that make when you’re streaming in France?” he says. “By getting rid of the W, we made that iconic logo about 50 percent more recognizable, and it takes out half the syllables when you say it on air.” Mission-driven organizations often create their identity around their ideals, describing to their audience why they merit support. But a fresh tagline— “What matters to you”—helped the station find new unity and reposition itself for its audience, a slick change to assert that the station caters to exactly what people need.
When NPR and PBS affiliates merged in Rhode Island, Minelli shepherded the organization into its new era as the more identifiable “Ocean State Media.” With other nonprofits, identity changes necessitated transforming operations. For over a century, the Trustees of the Reservations have preserved and stewarded 120 sites and 52,000 acres across the state with the objective to “protect and share the Massachusetts places people love for their exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value.” Their globally resonant mission inspired The Land Trust in the United Kingdom. Taking down fences, improving signage, and training concierges instead of security guards has helped the organization embrace its ethos every day.
“What gets me excited is when clients have that ‘aha moment,’” Minelli says. “They can make what they’re doing bigger and better and more sustainable.” While Minelli works across the country and the region, he’s also dialed into life and culture right in the North Shore. He partnered with the Peabody Essex Museum to reorganize around the concept of open-ended emotional journeys that span time, culture, and ideas, contributing to the museum’s elevation as a center of culture. “It’s a very different premise,” he says. “You have to connect the collections and make it about what the visitor is getting out of it.”
And for Minelli, this one was personal. Outside of his brand and communications work, he continually returns to his lifelong passion and takes a pencil to paper in his Marblehead studio. In his art, he contemplates memory, family history, the built environment, and longing for shared community. “I’m not sure if that’s art or therapy, but it’s helpful to not have to overthink and just intuitively react,” he says. “I’m not trying to solve somebody’s complicated communication problem. I’m just allowing myself to do things. It’s always been important for me to hang onto that.”