Wikipedia

Problem
Wikipedia lacks a solid brand foundation and faces readability issues and easy access to information. The brand’s current logo — the unfinished puzzle globe — is seen by its audience as laughable.

Insight
A lack of mark-up style isn’t making Wikipedia neutral, it creates an aesthetic that inhibits readability and easy access to information.

Solution
I focused on a smart typographic solution, appropriate for reference materials. There is stock in the stark black text on a white background, with a serifed face set in small caps and featuring a crossed-V style capital W. This capital W is iconic and separates the brand from other online entities that use a capital W — such as Wordpress — but without the crossed-V format.

 

Web
The most important element of this redesign is the aspect of the brand which people most frequently interact with. This solution involves creating an interface that is open, breathable, and accessible. Content was divided in a logical manner. The header contains the Website’s more important feature: the search. The left column contains the navigation within Wikipedia. The main body that houses the article is treated as a narrative; this content is written by users while referencing external materials. The narrative can be read, edited, discussed, and bookmarked. In addition, users can view past versions and edits.

Within the narrative, issues such as line length and text wrapping were addressed by dividing the content into two columns. Stylesheets for media and content such as video, audio, and pull quotes were defined in order to encourage more robustly developed posts.

The right column is reserved for factual information and article tools. Some tools I added were a topic web, so the user could easily see topics that link to and from this article; a contributor geography map; and highlighter tools so that users can mark copy to reference in the future, divide content by update, and by reference material.

Mobile
The crossed-V style capital W serves as a simple identifier for the application. The stark black on white brand asset is striking and sophisticated.
The approach for the mobile interface was designed to solve an immediate need for quick and easy access to media and written content. 

Multiple entry points into forms of media should be accessible to the user above the fold.

Print Collateral
The approach for stationary was simplicity, readability, and easy access. This was done by designing with stark minimal layouts and clean typography. The system uses the brand’s hero color, link blue, to as a callout and as a general indicator of information that links people.

Business Cards
Card 01
This business card style is the more conventional option. It employs a simple and sophisticated use of the logo on the front side. On the backside, the format for displaying background information — as seen on the Website — is used, including a tongue-in-cheek treatment of the employee’s name and place of origin.

Card 02
Of a more conceptual nature, this card simply displays the logo, Website url, and the employee’s name appearing in quotes and offset by the universally-recognized icon for “search.” This implores the receiver to search for the employee on wikipedia.org. This method controls how the receiver retrieves this information and has the receiver interacting with the brand’s Website. Employees will have profile pages that function like articles, allowing for content, media, and discussion.

Hewlett-Packard Ink

Problem
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is one of the largest manufacturers of printers and makers of printer cartridges in the world. However, purchasing ink online and in retail stores can be a confusing and frustrating experience. Packaging for printer ink is not intuitive. In retail stores many consumers simply walk away after a few moments from a product they are surely in need of.

Insight
A clear packaging system can help consumers find the correct product. There are also technologies available that could aid in easing frustration at the point of purchase and would improve the overall brand experience.

Solution
I developed a packaging system in order to aid consumers at the point of purchase. Integrated into this packaging is an exciting piece of technology. In addition to this, an ink- and printer- managing application was designed to help consumers find their products and to help them understand the value that the products provide them.

Ink Packaging
Clearly stated product attributes are printed on the packaging. The packaging for each ink cartridge is also accented with the color of ink. The white packaging indicates a single-color ink while the dark grey packaging indicates multiple colors.

Microsoft Tag
The Microsoft Tag is a piece of emerging technology that is adopted because of the value it offers over its predecessors. The concept of the technology is nothing new, QR Codes have been around since 1994. What the Microsoft Tag holds over the QR Code is the amount of information that can be encoded in the mark, the flexibility of the code’s appearance, and the minimum size needed for readability by devices. Also, the Microsoft Tag hits a server-side database meaning that content can be updated and that Microsoft can provide analytics to publishers.
QR Codes are more ubiquitous — however, almost exclusively to Japan — but given the benefits of the Microsoft Tag, and the long history of working together that Microsoft and HP share I was supported in using the Tag.

I [Recycle] HP
Hewlett-Packard advocates recycling discarded ink cartridges. The campaign — I Recycle HP — is a call to action to do just that. The name is a nod at the wildly popular I [Heart] NY campaign and urges consumers to take pride in and responsibility for properly disposing of their waste. The mark appears on packaging and online. These products, through the program, when recycled, feed into an incentive program that offers consumers a value redeemable toward future purchases.

HP Ink Manager — Main
This management tool is made available to consumers through the brand’s Website, digital kiosks in major retail stores, and mobile devices. Users start by making an account and then linking all printers which he or she frequents whether it be at home, at work, or elsewhere. Determining a printer model and compatible inks can be quite confusing. For users that don’t have the printer model readily available, this application will intuitively aid him or her in selecting the printer model.

Printers update the online printer cloud on measured ink levels. The HP Ink Manager displays this information conveniently in one central interface.

 Compatible ink cartridges for the selected printer model are also shown along with links to purchase these cartridges or view similar printer models. These features are gateways to sales.

Key information — the printer model, installed ink cartridges, ink level estimates — can be sent by the application, via SMS (a text message), to a mobile phone so that the user or an associate of the user can have this information accessible even when the application may not be.

HP Ink Manager — Performance
This feature of the HP Ink Manager allows the user to see performance of ink color and cartridge type. This information can be formatted in a few different ways, and can be viewed by time period, by cartridge, or by printer. By knowing what performance to expect from a printer or cartridge the consumer can plan for purchases more wisely.

HP Ink Manager — Mobile
The Ink Manager Mobile application allows the user easy mobile access to the same accounts and information as the Website and kiosk. If the user so chooses, he or she can be alerted when ink levels are low and the smartphone’s GPS detects that he or she is in the nearby proximity of a retail store with that item stocked.