Every collection had a name. Most had a story. None of them looked like it. The catalogs were all templated. The opportunity was to give each Chapter its own visual identity.
UX strategy, content direction, and end-to-end launch coordination. The title said Product Designer. The job was everything else too.
Content audit, competitor analysis, and a visual storytelling framework that gave each Chapter its own look, feel, and narrative identity.
Three distinct collections. One trade show debut. A Chapters framework that continued after I left and still shapes new collections today.
If the story is different, the design should be different.
Every collection had a name. Most had a story. None of them looked like it.
The Chapters framework already existed. The owner loved books. Each tile collection was called a Chapter. The catalogs told each collection's story in text. But visually they all looked the same. Same layout. Same template. Same feel. A brand built on the idea of distinct narratives that all read as one.
The opportunity was clear. If each Chapter has its own story, it should have its own look. The catalog, the digital experience, all of it should feel as distinct as the collection itself.
One chapter at a time, we broke away from the template catalog.
Role
What I owned
This is where I learned what end-to-end actually means-
Led the website redesign and introduced the visual storytelling framework for the Chapters
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Conducted a content audit and competitor analysis to inform information architecture
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Defined the content strategy and visual direction for each Chapter catalog
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Mentored a graphic designer on brand execution across catalogs and social content
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Created the interactive digital flipbook experience for the Chapters
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Directed 3D room scene production to bring each collection to life in context
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Coordinated a simultaneous website and trade show launch across design, development, and marketing teams
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Managed stakeholder relationships and cross-team coordination under tight deadlines
Understand what exists before deciding what should change.
Before anything was designed, I needed to understand what was already there and what was missing.
A content audit revealed inconsistent product imagery and outdated descriptions that no longer reflected the brand's direction. Competitor analysis showed visitors gravitated toward newest releases, which directly shaped how we structured and prioritized content on the site.
Product imagery was inconsistent. Some tiles had straight shots. Some had angle shots. Some had neither. Every gap was a barrier between the product and the buyer.
Visitors gravitated toward newest releases. That informed how we structured and prioritized content. Lead with what's new. Make it easy to find.
The real strategic insight came from the Chapters themselves. Each collection already had a reason for existing. A material, a mood, an era, a place. These weren't just product lines. They were narratives waiting for a visual language to match.
My role was to define the direction for each Chapter's visual identity. I set the content strategy, established the creative guardrails, and mentored the graphic designer through the execution. She brought the craft. I made sure it served the story.
If the story is different, the design should be different. That became the principle everything else followed.
Three decisions that shaped the experience.
Each Chapter gets its own visual identity
The template was comfortable. It was also invisible. Every collection looked like every other collection. Breaking away meant making an internal case for why the extra effort was worth it. The answer was simple. If the story is different, the design should be different.
Each new catalog was built around the collection's narrative. The result was a brand experience where moving from one Chapter to the next felt like entering a different world while staying unmistakably within the brand.
The flipbook as a digital catalog experience
Print catalogs work at trade shows. They don't work online. An interactive flipbook gave the Chapters a digital home that felt editorial rather than transactional. It wasn't just a PDF. It was an experience built around how people actually browse content.
The Chapters catalog — interact belowRoom scenes as content strategy
A product image shows what a tile looks like. A room scene shows what a life could look like. Directing 3D environments around each Chapter's narrative was a content strategy decision as much as a creative one.
It answered the user's real question. Not "what is this tile?" but "where does this tile belong?"
Three collections. One trade show. A framework that stuck.
Three distinct collections launched simultaneously. Residential, commercial, and outdoor. Each with its own narrative, visual identity, and catalog.
Commercial buyers responded more strongly to the commercial line than expected. That reaction directly shaped the product roadmap.
The Chapters framework continued after I left. New collections still get their own visual identity and catalog. It's still running.
The trade show validated something we suspected but hadn't confirmed. The commercial line resonated more strongly with buyers than anyone had anticipated. That wasn't planned. It was discovered. Which brings me to what I'd do differently.
The system outlasted the project. That's the best thing a designer can leave behind.
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Set success metrics before launch, not after. The trade show gave us strong signals but we had no pre-defined benchmarks to measure against. Next time I'd define what success looks like before anything is created.
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Advocate for user testing even when the organization doesn't know what UX is yet. One conversation with a commercial buyer before the trade show would have made the product strategy feel planned rather than discovered.
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Document the full scope upfront. Stakeholders kept setting unrealistic deadlines because they didn't understand what a full website overhaul required. A detailed project roadmap would have set honest expectations from day one and protected the team.