CASE STUDY 01.
Hosted Here
A platform to host and collaborate on creative events.
THE OVERVIEW
As co-founder and Head of Brand & Product at Hosted Here, I led product and brand development including brand strategy/positioning, launch and go-to-market strategy, partnerships, campaigns, copywriting, photography, styling, event planning and more.
Year: 2021-2023
THE PLATFORM
Hosted Here is a self-managed event ticketing and registration platform for creatives. As a host, you can create event pages, sell tickets, open waitlists, customize registration forms and more. The platform also handles communication between hosts and attendees, sending automated event reminders and other necessary notifications.
While Hosted Here is a tech platform, our goal was for it not to feel like one. With a predominately creative audience who host small-scale, curated events such as workshops, retreats and other gatherings, a design-driven user experience was at top of ming. Developing and designing this platform to be extremely user friendly and aesthetic, while also being highly functional, required creativity and a meticulous attention to detail. In addition to balancing the design and functionality, it was my responsibility to ensure consistency across all brand touch points, including all front-end and back-end pages, as well as throughout messaging, imagery, and brand identity elements.
THE EVENTS
In order to connect with our audience outside of the platform and other digital spaces, we hosted quarterly events and experiences to help grow awareness and build trust within our community. In addition to audience connection, this gave us the opportunity to create on-brand content for marketing purposes, as well as user generated content from attendees. We’ve collaborated with local makers, artists and other partners to bring these one-of-a-kind events to life. From a floral workshop with Lovelily Flowers, who handpicked the flowers from a flower farm, to a Lei-making class on the beaches of Big Island Hawaii hosted with Shannan Scott, each Hosted Here event was crafted with intention and sense of place at top of mind.
My responsibilities spanned event concept, planning, and production, including partner collaboration, venue scouting, workshop programming, and budgeting. I thoughtfully incorporated brand identity throughout each event, from branded wax seals on stationery to other curated details, with each experience being an opportunity to creatively showcase the Hosted Here brand.
THE BRAND IDENTITY
After the several months of business and strategy development, we collaborated with LA-based design studio, Made by Fictorium, to create our visual identity, as well as the UI/UX for the platform. Together we solidified the brand strategy and visual direction, from defining brand values, to developing moodboards, conducting competitive analysis and more. We came to the conclusion that visually we needed to avoid common themes we saw amongst other tech companies, which included bold colors, stock-like imagery and commercial logos and designs. As for the brand typography and web design, we took inspiration from the editorial world, looking to both online and print magazines to help inform our font systems and layout for various pages within the platform. In addition to the foundational visual identity, we also created brand illustrations to categorize event types, as well as patterns to be used throughout social media posts and other marketing collateral.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER
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