The Brief

Skift had grown from one site into five distinct editorial brands — Skift, Skift Research, Skift Meetings, Airline Weekly, and Daily Lodging Report (a 20-year-old newsletter acquired with no visual identity). Each property had its own audience, its own tone, and increasingly its own visual language. The challenge was to redesign the flagship, integrate a new acquisition, elevate a premium data product, and build an editorial toolset — all within a single, scalable design system.

The Approach

I set the creative strategy and led the work across four parallel tracks. The flagship Skift.com redesign (with agency partner Design Rocket) established the modular design system — typography, layout, color, navigation — that every sub-brand would inherit. For Daily Lodging Report, we built the brand from scratch: identity, website, and content experience designed for busy hotel executives who valued clarity over flash. For Skift Research, we redesigned the site and created a data visualization system — style guide, chart templates, infographic workflows — to match the premium positioning. And for the editorial experience across all brands, I designed Story Cards: a suite of modular Gutenberg blocks (data cards, quote cards, timeline sequences, key points) that gave journalists visual tools to enhance stories without breaking the system. The blocks extended into homepages, sub-brand sites, and email newsletters.

The Outcome

Five brands, one system. Each property maintained a distinct identity while the audience experienced a cohesive platform. The design system scaled to handle new properties and formats without starting over, and the editorial toolkit raised the visual quality of day-to-day journalism across the entire portfolio.