Description
Background
As a new entrant in the ongoing Battle of the Streaming Services, an integral part of conveying Max's value to prospective subscribers was marketing Max Originals, brand-new content that would be exclusively available to subscribers.
Design Process
I created the designs in Sketch, developing assets along the way in Photoshop and Illustrator. A significant influence in the big-picture design strategy was achieving a balance between the editorial, high-fashion aesthetic preferred by Lyons and her team and the feasibility of execution for our developer team. After all, the website needed to be functional, and that included ensuring support of the CMS that would eventually pull dynamic content into my layouts.
Homepage Design
Listicle Page Design
About page design
While I adhered to Lyons' personal brand guidelines, it was necessary at times to create evolutions of the existing assets to fit the project. During the process of designing the site's navigation bar, I found the official logo developed by Max for the show wouldn't fit without losing readability, so I chose to develop a secondary, horizontal version of the logo from the original Illustrator files. Fiddling with an official logo can be a huge no-no if the rationale doesn't check out, but after communicating the value of my rework, it became an official asset of the brand.
Official show logo
My modified version
Outcome
The website launched in preparation of the series' premiere on December 3, 2020, where it became available to HBO Max's then 59.9MM subscribers. It served as a hub for show promotion and information to media coverage of the series.
Stylish itself was a significant shift in Lyons' career path following her departure from J. Crew in 2017. Lyons is now in the cast of the Real Housewives of New York, an opportunity she perhaps wouldn't have pursued if it weren't for the success of her initial step into the reality television spotlight at HBO Max.
I'm not saying my work is possibly the reason why RHONY has had such immense success in its return to television, and why Lyons is an unexpected but beloved star of it, but I'm not not saying that, either.