Twitter: @ryanjhubbard
Instagram: @ryanjhubbard
Medium: ryanjhubbard.medium.com 

Project description ➫  Every day, 170 million people come to Medium to read. It's always been Medium's mission to deepen those readers' understanding of the world and to spread ideas that matter. In late 2019, we took a look at how our brand was working to support that mission, and decided we could do better. Partnering with the team at COLLINS, we built a refreshed brand system that more clearly reflects what Medium is and always has been – a better place to read and write on the internet; one where good ideas begin, take shape, are set in motion, and make an impact.

Project role: Developing concept and design direction with the design and editorial teams, designing select covers, and managing editorial art direction and illustration commissions.

Team: Andrew Johnson, Bethany Heck, Dora Godfrey, Noah Baker, and Renald Louissaint

Project description ➫  Beginning in 2018, Medium reinvested in in-house editorial content. As the editorial team found it's footing, we began publishing monthly magazines that explored various editorial themes. The design team worked with the editorial team to create covers and art direction packages for each issue, evolving the approach over time until the magazines were sunset in favor of our current verticals.  

Project role: Design direction across all Medium publication brands and leading development of individual brand foundations with the design and editorial teams, as well as directing design and designing individual wordmarks and identities.

Team: Dora Godfrey, Bethany Heck, Siobhan O'Connor, Noah Baker,  Renald Louissaint, and Brandon Oxendine

Project description ➫  In early 2019, Medium's editorial strategy was shifting from publishing magazines to building dedicated verticals to live on and contribute more quality content to the Medium platform. The design team was tasked with creating distinct brands for every new vertical –  with each distinct and recognizable as standalone brands while also looking like a family when seen together. Together with the editorial team, we created a suite of identities informed by individual subject matters and editorial points of view and held together by a consistent, type-driven approach.

Project role: Creative direction and design for Tickpocolypse, and creative direction for Trump 45 and Know Their Names.

Team: Dora Godfrey, Noah Baker,  Renald Louissaint, Jovanna Tosello, and Tessa Modi

Project description ➫  As Medium's editorial teams and verticals grew throughout 2019, interest built in exploring different, more immersive formats for editorial special projects. As an experiment to see how far we could push our visual storytelling, build affinity for our editorial brand, and look for new patterns that could inform future product, we built three bespoke landing pages for three different editorial projects, each with package and brand-specific design and art direction.

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The Trump 45 ➫ Published by GEN, Medium's pop and politics brand, The Trump 45 profiles 45 individuals from across the country who's lives have been meaningfully affected and changed for both better and worse (but mostly worse), after three years of President Trump.

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Know Their Names ➫ Published by ZORA, Medium's editorial brand for women of color, Know Their Names profiles, humanizes, and commemorates the 19 black trans woman who were killed by fatal violence in 2019.

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Project role: Lead designer for identity, web , packaging, print, and experience design components.

Team: Stewart Scott-Curran, Justin Pervorse, and Justin Gitlin

Project description ➫  Inside Intercom World Tour was a series of events and speaking engagements across North America and Europe that chronicled and gave insight into building a relatively new, rapidly growing startup. Capturing the bold, messy, ever changing, at times rebellious nature of a startup, the series brand was built around the concept of being able to  "make your mark" as a member of a company in that stage of growth.

Project description ➫  Hello, Marjorie is a classic cocktail bar in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Named after the owner's late grandmother and housed in the lobby of the former Des Moines Register building, the design pulls in themes from classic publishing and the feeling of a warm living room to create a comfortable, stylish, and textured brand to compliment the excellent cocktail menu.

Project description ➫  Bellhop is a tropical themed bar concept in Des Moines, Iowa, specializing in classic tiki-style cocktails. We built the brand to be a fresher, modern take on tiki, leaning on simple, expressive typography, bright colors, and tropical imagery with an acid twist rather than the often problematic traditional tiki aesthetic.

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