Balkan Alliance for Local Media
Designing a shared voice for local journalism
Balkan Alliance for Local Media is a network of more than 30 small and local media outlets from Kosovo, Bosnia, and Serbia, formed to address a shared structural problem: local journalism is underfunded, poorly understood by donors, and fragmented in how it communicates its value.
The alliance exists to improve funding conditions for small media and to establish clearer, more credible communication with donors. For a network operating across post-conflict contexts, this required more than a visual identity. It required a storytelling system capable of building trust, coordination, and recognition without flattening differences.
The challenge
Small media are closest to local realities, yet farthest from funding structures. In Kosovo, Bosnia, and Serbia, this gap is amplified by historical tension, fragile trust, and limited visibility beyond local contexts.
The challenges were tightly linked:
- Low external visibility
- Fragmented donor communication
- No shared narrative framework
- The need to balance credibility with accessibility
Design was not asked to decorate these problems. It was asked to help stabilize them.
My role and collaboration
I worked in close collaboration with Ilir Gashi, a journalist and one of the founders of the alliance. Our process combined editorial judgment with visual experimentation, with ongoing calibration between expressiveness and restraint.
My contribution included:
- Visual identity development: logo explorations, typography, illustration rules, and visual tone
- Full website design and build, from concept and structure to implementation
- Creation of a repeatable publishing system, including AI-assisted workflows
- Ongoing social media strategy and execution
- Co-defining tone of voice and visual restraint
Ilir led editorial direction and copywriting, ensuring clarity, credibility, and journalistic integrity. This was joint authorship, not a handoff.
Design as infrastructure
The website functions as a stable, informative home for the alliance rather than a campaign artifact. It explains the mission clearly while supporting ongoing publishing and distribution.
The visual system was designed to be:
- Distinct in the NGO and media space
- Restrained enough to earn institutional trust
- Flexible enough to support multiple voices
Early iterations explored more expressive motion and animation. Through testing and discussion, these elements were deliberately reduced. The final system prioritizes clarity and durability over spectacle.
Comics as strategy
A defining aspect of the project is the use of short-form comic stories as a primary storytelling and distribution format.
This choice was deliberate. Fully drawn comics establish an immediately recognizable visual language while remaining simple and highly legible. Each story focuses on a single, concrete situation in the relationship between donors and small media, outlining challenges, misunderstandings, or productive outcomes.
Stories typically range from four to twelve panels and are designed to be read in one sitting. They live on the website, but social media is the primary distribution channel. LinkedIn is the most important platform, supported by Facebook and Instagram. All stories are designed to be shared, reposted, and understood without additional context.
Distribution and reuse
The comics function as modular content:
- Standalone pieces for social platforms
- Entry points back to the alliance’s mission
- A shared narrative and visual language across organizations
This structure supports coordination without enforcing uniformity.
Early signals
The project is still in an early phase, but initial responses have been encouraging:
- Alliance members recognize their realities in the stories
- The format supports internal alignment as well as external communication
- Engagement is growing organically
The emphasis so far has been on durability rather than scale.
Key decisions & learnings
- Comics over articles: Short, fully drawn stories proved more effective than long-form text for expressing nuanced, sensitive situations in a shareable format.
- Restraint builds trust: Reducing motion and visual effects increased credibility with institutional audiences.
- Systems matter more than artifacts: The real value lies in a repeatable storytelling format, not individual stories.
- Design and journalism must co-author: Close collaboration with editorial leadership prevented visual experimentation from undermining clarity or integrity.
- Simplicity scales: A limited, consistent visual language makes coordination across many organizations possible.
Why this work matters
Balkan Alliance for Local Media demonstrates how design and journalism can jointly create infrastructure for storytelling in fragmented, politically sensitive contexts.
For me, it continues a body of work focused on narrative systems rather than isolated outputs. Here, illustration is not stylistic expression alone, but a strategic tool for trust, coordination, and long-term communication.