To get things moving quickly, a team of strategists set a vision for a new Mailchimp media business and brand. We worked side by side to adapt Mailchimp's first acquisition - a print only magazine - into the modern digital media landscape.

I started off taking a deeper look into Courier’s breadth of content. As a print magazine, Courier’s content took many forms, often breaking the boundaries that digital editorial can accommodate. We were able to identify six general types of content within the magazine. These were used as the basis for the different types of templates we would need for the site. From there, we created a flexible content kit that would support any content Courier created. Pages like the homepage would house and drive to these pieces of content.

I then created a system for how the site would be constructed.

Across Courier’s magazine were small bits of content that weren’t quite the size of a full article. We wanted to stay true to these content bites, and created embedded components that would fit within the Courier site that could be easily shared across the Mailchimp ecosystem.

Along with the embedded content, we created three full size article templates. These encompassed more straightforward content like a text based editorial article, to a list article, and a social story formatted article.

For each template, I created a set of wireframes and visual rules.

Here's how it turned out. Editorial articles are a template for any longer copy-based pieces. They contain a header (image or podcast) and a body made up of a flexible content kit.

List articles are shorter, segmented pieces made made of a header and body. List articles usually include list numbering. The body is also made up of a flexible content kit.

Stories are robust, full page experiences that highlight Courier’s photography. Readers can tap through each screen to experience the story. On mobile, these pages can appear inline with other content.

Team:

Chelsea McLemore, Creative Director
Richard Smith, Design Director
Jass Sosa, Senior Strategist