Hillman Grad
Hillman Grad is a full service media and production company founded in 2018 by Emmy® Award-winning writer, producer, and actor, Lena Waithe, and led by CEO, Rishi Rajani. Since its inception, Hillman Grad has grown to include five divisions across TV/Film, Books, Podcasts, Branded Content and Mentorship–quickly rising to become one of the most prominent companies in entertainment.
Zero Folks were contacted to redesign their existing website and create a dynamic and modular solution that enabled them to showcase their growing number of initiatives and divisions over time. Needless to say, we were intrigued by this challenge and got to work immediately.
Goals
Hillman Grad had very clear and pragmatic requirements for the project.
- Create a new website that implements their existing brand identity and content
- Construct an efficient content solution for maintaining existing IP and portfolio while also enabling future expansion into new departments
Considerations
As far as web design goes, our internal post-mortem of this project has not revealed any major challenges or considerations. The Hillman Grad team is incredibly collaborative and their technical specifications were not inherently complex.
The biggest consideration with this project was IP (intellectual property). We were aware that unlike startups or service-based organizations, Hillman Grad is an established brand in the entertainment industry and tied directly to the highly accomplished actress, producer and screenwriter Lena Waithe. Although this was not a challenge, we knew going into this project that we had to handle this with exceptional care to protect the brand integrity.
Strategy
Our process with Hillman Grad followed our standard protocol:
- Onboarding: Receive all current brand assets, color palettes and typography
- Conceptualization: Collaborate on ideas for visuals and site structure
- Feedback: Ensure alignment and adjustments as necessary before next steps
- Build: Implement concept and design into the functional site
- Deliver
Since logo assets and color palette already existed, our team was able to focus entirely on implementing the existing visual identity into structure. The Hillman Grad remained highly collaborative and open to suggestions, which in turn incentivized us to accommodate their wishes.
Delivery
At the end of our first project with Hillman Grad, we had delivered a site that met all of their needs and requests.
Our partnership with Hillman Grad remains active to this day.
