TL;DR
During VH1’s major rebrand, I led the evolution of the digital experience to scale seamlessly across platforms and future Viacom properties. Informed by site audits and user insights, we developed a scalable design system that reduced friction, improved content discovery, and created a flexible foundation built to extend well beyond the core site experience.
Context
VH1 is rooted in music, pop culture, and nostalgia, with an approach that is bold, expressive,and full of personality. As audiences shifted to mobile and social media, the experience needed to evolve without losing that identity.
At the same time, VH1 operated within a multi-faceted, fragmented ecosystem, wherein consistent patterns made it difficult to scale across platforms or reuse across brands.
This was not just a redesign. It was a chance to build a foundation for long-term growth.
Where we started
VH1.com functioned more like an editorial destination than a product. It prioritized curated browsing over helping users quickly find shows or content.
This led to a fragmented and cluttered experience. Shows and franchises lived side by side without clear structure, forcing users to click around to find what they needed.
What we learned
Through audits and user feedback, a clear trend became apparent. Users were working too hard and not quickly enough to get to the desired content
- Frequent “clicking around” to find content
- Discovery based on exploration, not recognition
- Brand loyalty masking poor usability
- Users defaulting to YouTube or Google when friction increased
Two key audiences to focus on:
- Show-first viewers looking for specific programs
- Pop culture browsers with weaker ties to VH1
Reframing the problem
It turns out this isn’t just a visual refresh, it was a structural issue.
VH1 was getting traffic, but people weren’t coming back regularly. The content was there, but it wasn’t easy to find or navigate. And while the brand showed up, it lacked clarity and focus in the experience.
At the same time:
- 83% of users were on mobile
- The product needed to scale across platforms
- The system needed to extend across brands
How do we reduce friction and structure content without losing VH1’s personality?
My role
As Digital Art Director, I led experience strategy and digital system design across brand, product, and platform using the on‑air toolkit.
- Defined experience principles
- Established a scalable design system
- Drove tradeoffs between brand and usability
- Influenced cross-functional teams
Rebrand kicked off
The VH1 rebrand tool kit is robust and bold. With the high-level direction settled on, my team and I set off to start stress-testing the brand guidelines. My job was to figure out how the new brand guidelines would work on the website, streaming app and social platforms.
While Gretel delivered a phenomenal tool kit that encompasses fundamental guidelines such as color, type and design patterns. The focus of the brand book was mostly print and on-air creative so there was a lot to be determined for its online and digital presence. My team and I began exploring how to translate the rebrand by focusing on our highly traffic pages such as the home page, show pages and our social accounts.
Brand overhaul
Starting with the home and show pages, I started to study the information hierarchy, typography and areas of brand moments while addressing the user and brand pain points.
Typography
We defined the typography scale ensuring the readability of how headlines are breaking and visually pairing with body copy. While the rebrand type face is customized Replica (non-system font), the system needed a web-safe font. In this case, the brand moments can be found in the headlines and the bulk of the support content is set in Proxima Nova to be mindful of page-load time.
Colors
Our new color palette was colorful and bold and the design system needed to be further defined to feel cohesive across our digital brand. Keeping the base black and white, the franchises and shows were assigned to color pairing.
With this system in place, I assigned designers to take ownership to shows while I focused on the franchises and overall creative direction. This helped with our project roadmaps and collaboration with other teams. We had daily stand-ups and check-ins to ensure alignment.
Key Decisions
Designing with restraint
We simplified interactions to make content faster and easier to access.
Structuring content into clear silos
We organized content into three distinct sections, helping users quickly understand where to go.
Creating a system for brand + content
Each silo became a flexible framework to highlight shows while maintaining consistency.
Letting content lead
Clean, adaptable layouts gave imagery and programming room to stand out.
Design Decisions & Tradeoffs
To support this approach, we made deliberate tradeoffs:
- Default patterns over custom interactions – Prioritized familiarity and speed
- Content-led layouts – Focused on hierarchy and clarity over heavy branding
- Constraint over expression – Reduced visual noise so brand personality is in focus
In practice, that meant fewer “special” interactions to maintain, more consistent layouts, and a system that was easier for teams to build and evolve over time.
The Solution
We shifted from an editorial browsing experience to a structured, content‑first product organized around three core silos to enable:
- Clear navigation and hierarchy
- Simplified, repeatable layouts
- Strong visual storytelling through imagery
- Consistent patterns across platforms
This shifted the work from a redesign to a shared organizational asset.
Clarity as a Brand Decision
As a result, our success was measured through impactful and directional signals:
- Reduced effort required to find content
- Improved mobile usability and navigation predictability
- Increased reuse of components and patterns across teams
- Increase in content engagement
- Faster production timelines
- A scalable system that could extend across future Viacom brands
By designing with constraint, we created a clearer and more consistent experience without losing VH1’s personality.
What began as a redesign evolved into a shared system that helped teams launch faster, maintain consistency, and support future growth more effectively.
