Mental Floss
Redesigned Mental Floss’s overall visual brand identity in coordination with the company founders, web editor-in-chief, and marketing director—including updating logos, marketing materials, social media, and the website.
Date:
Dec 2017 – Aug 2018
Position:
Creative Director
My Role:
Art Direction, Illustration, Social Media, Branding, Graphics Design, and Visual Design
Mentalfloss.com Redesign
Redesigning mentalfloss.com was a large part of rebranding the company as a whole. The website needed to convey a modern feel and incorporate elements from the newly redesigned print magazine. Working with our head UX designer, we set out to maintain components that users loved (such as the Amazing Fact Generator) while making space for social media, sponsored content, and a new hub for our video channel.
Minimal primary navigation, featuring a carousel to showcase multiple daily stories.
Secondary navigation gives users a more extensive dropdown menu of sections, articles, and sponsored content.
A responsive site that allowed for three breakpoints that accommodated short and long article lengths, plus videos.
Stakeholders required a place for editorial content and supported articles, while keeping a top block for daily stories.
Logo Redesign
The logo initially was all lowercase with an underscore between the two words. A holdover from the primary print product, I was tasked with updating the branding company-wide. This incarnation would need to sit just as comfortably on letterhead, business cards, marketing material, and social media. The primary logo took on all caps with customized M and F. In contrast, we condensed the social media logo and reversed out the type, enhancing legibility on both phones and desktops.
Redesigned Social Media Logo
Social Media Revamp
Implemented cohesive branding across Mental Floss’s social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. Designed a custom background featuring intersecting objects, which represented the varied aspects of Mental Floss content. Redesigned the Instagram feed and stories for a consistent and modern vision.
Color Palette Upgrade
For the rebranding, I collaborated with stakeholders to develop a color palette that was consistent both onscreen and off. I selected colors for the brand's key elements, including the video, quizzes, and the new shopping section.
The primary color, Clambake, was used on the homepage for the primary logo, marketing materials, and video bumpers.
Three central breakdowns — web, marketing, and third-party vendors — enabled us to have a cohesive color scheme that would flow throughout the company. A separate video palette is available, offering two primary colors tailored to the topic and type of video being composed.