Here you'll find an overview of three projects that have been a focus of mine, and which I am able to discuss to some degree: HMH's Into Literature program; their Core Pattern Design System; and the Galway International Arts Festival rebrand. Detailed case studies are linked where possible.
HMH Into Literature
HMH is one of the largest educational publishers in the U.S. and Into Literature is the company's flagship product and the biggest earner in its $1.05 billion revenue. I was challenged with designing a digital and print product to succeed in the newly open 2021 Florida market. Student engagement was a priority, as well as a high benchmark in experience design, plus an accessibility-compliant product.
Leading the internal team and partnering with editorial and developers, I worked on an overhaul of the information hierarchy and experience as well as the interface design. To make it successful, we had to transform the way HMH developed digital product internally. Less than a year after launch sales had increased 17% in the $500 million Open Territory market.
You can view the Into Literature project in a detailed case study here.
Design System Creation and Management
Expanding the success of Into Literature, I led the creation of a Design System to ensure we could repeat the success of design, engagement, accessibility, and in creating a lean product. We identified foundational patterns for all HMH product needs and built the library around them. A separate custom pattern library was created, built on the same code. Colour, typographic choices and guidelines were explained and divided into four age brackets, representing our users.
We built all of this in an online library with centralised resources, tools, templates. Using this library we were able to reduce code by up to 80% and return fewer functional bugs because of repeating successes and improving on them easily. Above all, it gave all members of product teams an oversight of the building process and explained our design choices, reducing custom requests and saving time and costs.
You can view the Design System project in a detailed case study here.
Galway International Arts Festival branding
Working with Zero-G studio I created a complete branding overhaul for what is Ireland's biggest Arts Festival – GIAF – which takes over the city of Galway for two weeks every July.
I worked with GIAF through a stage of growth where they became an international festival, competing among the big cultural titans. The brand mark is adaptable to myriad applications while associated text is treated with a narrative approach rather than simply informative. The bright yellow became a marker for events, wayfinding and staff and, in time, it has become a marker for the festival itself.
The work helped the festival climb to quarter of a million visitors by 2018 with almost €30 million of local economic impact.