DEVELOPING A CORPORATE IDENTITY
I kicked off the discovery process with a series of brand workshops and interviews with key stakeholders, gathering insights into audience, mandate and mission to differentiate XU from the competition and begin to develop a brand identity.
I developed the XU CI through rounds of feedback with key stakeholders. Visual and emotional directions were contextualized for internal players with mood boards. Key recommendations were framed within an evolution of of brand concepts and options. The results were a CI that organically grew out of the constellation of expertise, intention, and vision brought to the table by the internal team – a true collaboration between design and industry expertise.
THE WEB DESIGN PROCESS
The website was designed with an iterative role-out in mind. We began with a simple one-page placeholder to establish an online presence while playing and experimenting with internal practices and opportunities to put the corporate identity to work in the real world.
ESTABLISHING A CONTENT HIERARCHY
In tandem with the design and coding of the one-page placeholder, I began designing the larger site.
Wireframing was initiated as a cooperative act in workshops using whiteboards and then Adobe Comp. Wireframes were then further refined in Illustrator, resulting in an incredibly swift workflow that was deeply rooted in the external communication needs of each department.
A MODULAR SYSTEM FOR THE RESPONSIVE WEB
Exponential University, like the realm of digital education, is a rapidly evolving creature. XU needed a design system that could grow and adapt as they evolved as a company. We decides on a design that centred around modular building blocks – a perfect match both metaphorically and practically.
The first step was to MVP this rather unique block-based grid system. I experimented in CodePen until we had a working prototype that would inform and accommodate our design vision as we all the content's needs.
