The Bum Diary - Web Design and Brand Identity
Going into what I knew would be a wild couple of months, I wanted to do everything in my power to maximize my experiences, growth, and outlook in my first summer away from Riverside County, California. My hometown friends, who had never been to New York before (or the east coast in general), had coordinated with me months prior on living together in the “Concrete Jungle” as a way to mark new growth and explore communities opposite of our familiarity. We all had our own plans for what the summer would be– some of us had internships and others worked part times jobs– but what came of our summer was The Bum Diary, digital publication project for us, by us that is based on our storytelling of unique events from the perspective of Inland Empire bred young adults.
As the Visual Storytelling lead of the I.E based digital publication The Bum Diary, I created unique web pages to communicate the journalistic expression of our team.
ABOUT
An Inland Empire born digital publication, The Bum Diary, for all good reason or purpose, is a symptom of our trying times… When the world seemed most destined to spiral out and vanish, it arrived. Not as any sort of savior or hero, but as an observational force. The Bum Diary is a reflection of all the ugliness and beauty it is graced with witnessing, regurgitating back out a rundown of the events that puts the mess back together in one comprehensible piece. Sometimes there’s nothing legible enough to comprehend in one of our stories… but there’s truth to find in the attempt at making it that way. As the Design Director, I am held with the responsbility of combining visuals with our non-fiction pieces to create immersive experiences. Follow our work at thebumdiary.com!
Designing a digital publication brand
FOCUS
- Get the stakeholders (cofounders and writers) to agree on a visual direction for the publication
- Design and build the initial 6-page website — including creating imagery that everyone agrees on, collaborating on copy, and exporting assets
- Make tech + design decisions that lay a solid foundation for future maintenance and growth
- Make the publication look credible
- Make our mission clear
- Make it maintainable and easy to update on a month to month basis
Web Designer
Head of Visual Design
The team wanted something unique– a palette that was immediately recognizable. Using a photo our team member Max Van Hosen took at the beginning of summer (one that helped lay the foundation of our identity), I extracted the colors of the photo to give us a minty green and red look!
CMS
Building on Cargo (as opposed to Wordpress or something) so we don’t have to rely on additional engineers to build or maintain the site’s blog.
VISUAL SITE ASSETS
Because our publication values visuals just as much as our writing, I heavily leaned on our vast photo catalog to create graphics to format our web pages in an immersive fashion.
Building on Cargo (as opposed to Wordpress or something) so we don’t have to rely on additional engineers to build or maintain the site’s blog.
VISUAL SITE ASSETS
Because our publication values visuals just as much as our writing, I heavily leaned on our vast photo catalog to create graphics to format our web pages in an immersive fashion.
A publication website with a organizational blog and easily navigation service system prototyped in Figma and built in Cargo.
Site analytics in our first month!