MIT Press Direct
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MITP) is a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. Known for iconic design, rigorous scholarship, and creative technology, MITP publishes more than 200 new books a year and close to 40 journals. MITP was looking for a way to quickly integrate with The Silverchair Platform to launch their Books portion of their content within a tight turnaround. I assisted with the UX Design portion of integrating MIT's strict identity to MIT Press Direct hosting 3,000 books.
MITP already had a significant web presence, which meant that I needed to adapt to their established design systems while continuing to utilize Silverchair Platform layouts & content hosting spec to ensure continued compatibility and access to ongoing functionality upgrades. MITP’s design systems were thoroughly documented by MITP and their design partners Pentagram and Palantir, with many style guideline resources provided during discovery phases. This was an opportunity to bridge their design & branding system with the one I developed for Silverchair.
The process of adapting the Silverchair Platform to this established style guide used a line of design thinking applied to all of our sites, Atomic Design. This involved styling existing Silverchair Platform components and variables such as icons, buttons, toolbars, typography, and colors. Once settled during the discovery phase of the project between both parties, we were able to carry these components throughout.
The resulting MIT Press Direct site is a clean extension of the MITP brand that is consistent with their existing home and journal sites. MITP now has a fully-branded Silverchair Platform site in less than four months, with the full suite of Silverchair Platform tools to stand up more sites with more content in the near future. All of this while staying on-brand with a heavily documented style guide.