Microsoft In Culture

— PROJECT NAME

— ROLE

Creative Direction

— CONTRIBUTERS

Steve Foyle, Angie Hill, Karina Reck, Jason Schuller, Rafal Tomal, Catherine Mitchell

Stories alone don't have any intrinsic value. They gain meaning by sharing. Microsoft In Culture is a storytelling go-to-market engine in service of brand partnerships. Focused on sharing the human stories of technology integrations in culturally relevant organizations and individuals. We tell stories, not case studies.

Although In Culture is more than a website, the site serves as the primary destination for content consumption. We recently refreshed the CMS and front end to reflect a more human and modern aesthetic to surprise the next generation of fans.

Sample homepage layout

Sample article layout

We began the process with an extensive audit of best-in-class digital storytelling sites, both branded and editorial, internal and external. Sorted through best practices, trends and crossed that all with our own brand identity.

We've worked to create a more approachable, accessible, and ownable storytelling platform that offers a unique perspective.

We're encouraging more rich and dynamic storytelling that celebrates all aspects of how content is consumed from live streams, podcasts, video, slideshows, etc.

Tactically, we did this by employing the following methods:

· Plenty of white space to avoid content congestion and give our more content dense pages room to breathe.

· Contextual color to support the story and help communicate emotion and set the story mood.

· Varied image dimensions to diversify the page layout and improve mobile experience.

· Content organization not only by topic, but by type of media too (e.g. videos, photo galleries, podcasts etc). Channel-like experiences, for more content variation.

· Serif typeface for the headlines and quotations helps to signal editorial and helps the story to feel more human and relatable, less corporate.

· A mix of different sections (with varied backgrounds and layouts) creates curiosity and rewards exploring, encouraging guests to keep scrolling.