CollegeHumor’s DROPOUT
Roles: Art Director, Designer
Company: CollegeHumor
Skills: User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Brand Development, Product Development
Overview
CH Media (CollegeHumor, Dorkly, Drawfee, and more) began transitioning from a largely ad‐supported comedy network to a multi‐revenue stream publisher. The cornerstone of the initiative was the launch of a subscription service called DROPOUT. This meant conceiving of an entirely new brand and bringing it to life visually across all of our external touchpoints, including product, marketing and sales.
As Art director, I led the creation of visual brand assets and interactive experiences across all of our properties in all types of media – video, web, corporate communications – spearheading both design and user experience, working with and directing both internal teams and external vendors.
Features
DROPOUT is a subscription video service which also offers innovative digital comics and interactive chat stories. As a subscription service focused heavily on video, users would expect the content they subscribe to to be available on all of their connected devices, from phones to tablets to connected TV’s. Beginning with a beta launch on web, I led the brand design, UI system design and UX design across all platforms.
Comics
Digital comics on DROPOUT were available on most platforms, but conceived of as being a mobile-first experience. I lead the UX and UI conception and development of this experience.
Chat Stories
Like digital comics, chat stories were conceived of as being a mobile-first experience. I lead the UX and UI conception and development of this experience.
iOS App
iOS and Android apps were among the first to roll out. The home screen of the experience offered full screen video thumbnails of content and provided a glimpse in to the depth of the library and variety of the content. There were production and delivery challenges associated with this, and I set up a testing and production process to ensure the vision for the experience could be adequately delivered.
Android App
Much the same in experience as the iOS app, designs for the the Android app was delivered some small differences that conform to the user interfaces and user experiences that Android users expect.
tvOS
Consumers of subscription video would expect the platform to be available on the device of their choice. Speed to market was key over features and customized design. Therefore, the tvOS application would make use of standard UX patterns and built with an eye towards platform standards with just enough customization to relay our brand experience.
Android TV
Like the tvOS app, speed to market for the Android TV app was given precedence over features and customized design. It made use of standard UX patterns and was built with an eye towards platform standards and just enough customization to relay our brand experience.
Key Art
I was responsible for either creating or commissioning key art for all of our series. For new series, I led creative kick-off’s and when necessary, made sure photo shoots were scheduled to capture the required assets. For archival series, I created key art often with limited resources. In all cases, attention was paid to best practices for creating art which would stand out but be easily read and identified when presented at small sizes, usually alongside many other images either from our own brand or others. See more key art
Brand Identity
I led the process for creating a brand identity for an entirely new consumer brand. For more on the process, visit the link below.
Design System
After creating the brand identity, I developed a flexible design system to help internal teams and external developers build a consistent brand experience across all of our touchpoints. For more on the process of UI and UX development, visit the link below.