Phia / The Burnouts

Context

Context

Phia is a media company built for a generation rethinking what work and ambition look like. Co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Phia creates content that's honest, culturally fluent, and willing to talk about the things most brands avoid.

The Burnouts is their flagship podcast: a conversation about hustle culture, career pressure, and the burnout that comes from chasing the wrong things. My role was to translate that voice into a visual language that felt native to short-form video, for audiences on Instagram and TikTok.

Approach

Approach

Good content at Phia had to be both aesthetically pleasing and actually perform. Every piece went through an iterative cycle: design for the scroll, test against real audience data, and refine based on what drove comments and shares.

I leaned into platform-native formats, studying what worked on similar accounts and what made people stop mid-scroll. I worked closely with the founders to keep the brand voice consistent across each post: direct, warm, and a little wry.

“The goal wasn’t just views. It was building a community around a conversation people couldn’t stop responding to.”

The Work

The Work

Across 12 posts on Instagram and TikTok, I designed graphics, edited reels, and produced short-form video tailored to each platform. The work ranged from branded quote cards and interview clips to full reel edits, each one designed to stop the scroll and invite conversation.

Results

Results

Over four months, the content I designed and edited drove meaningful reach:

Multiple posts drove high comment engagement and strong audience growth. A clear brand voice, backed by data-informed creative decisions, can meaningfully move the needle.

Data-driven design isn’t about following the algorithm. It’s about understanding what your audience actually cares about, then crafting something that earns their attention.