Client: Adobe via kvell
Project: Create assets for the Photoshop Express mobile app that resonate with Gen Z
My Role: Visual research, design + illustration, managing a team of ~4 (art directors/designers/illustrators)
Team: Kasey Aleixo (Sr. AD), Stef Drinkwater (Jr. AD), Emily Lopez, Becky Bacoka, Ricky Ostendi (Designer/Illustrator)
Project: Create assets for the Photoshop Express mobile app that resonate with Gen Z
My Role: Visual research, design + illustration, managing a team of ~4 (art directors/designers/illustrators)
Team: Kasey Aleixo (Sr. AD), Stef Drinkwater (Jr. AD), Emily Lopez, Becky Bacoka, Ricky Ostendi (Designer/Illustrator)
Photoshop Express allows users to apply toning adjustments, textured overlays, borders, SVG stickers, text, and "themes" (a preset combination of any of the above "ingredients") to their photos. Other kvell teams conducted focus group interviews concluding that the app's existing assets weren't resonating with the clients' Gen Z target audience. So my team was tasked with helping to update the app with aesthetics that teens and young adults would be excited to use. What we created was informed by a mix of trend research (ex. film aesthetic, surreal collages, Y2K-inspired ingredients) and client-provided cultural calendar priorities (ex. Golden Week in Japan, Pride Month).
My team, which I led on the design side, delivered around 40 themes and over 100 individual "ingredients" per quarter. We were responsible for:
As the creative lead on this project, my responsibilities also included:
- Researching Gen Z visual trends (primarily through social media), then creating moodboards showing how they could be translated into each "ingredient" asset type
- Creating the "ingredient" assets (largely with original illustration and photography) and developing complementary toning adjustment "edit recipes"
- Arranging "ingredients" into preset theme layouts, adapting each theme for five different aspect ratios, and sourcing placeholder images to showcase them
- Delivering all assets and metadata for the Photoshop Express internal app development team to implement them for consumer use
As the creative lead on this project, my responsibilities also included:
- Communicating with our account and production teams to establish reasonable timelines and deliverable counts
- Assigning work to each team member based on their availability, strengths, and interests
- Providing preliminary creative review of moodboards and asset designs
- Ensuring files were compliant with the dev team's parameters (ex. file size, folder structure)
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As the project went on, I took more of an active role in designing and illustrating elements myself—I found a fun challenge in figuring out how to hack the relatively limited SVG file format to simulate different textures and effects.
Guiding my team through working with detailed technical specifications and delivering a high volume of assets was an intense learning experience, but it was exciting to flex my design skills across so many different visual styles.
Guiding my team through working with detailed technical specifications and delivering a high volume of assets was an intense learning experience, but it was exciting to flex my design skills across so many different visual styles.
Photoshop Express In-App • Newhouse MPD • Channel 39 • Access Music Project • Print Design Projects • Social Design Projects