Interim product direction, brand strategy, and visual identity for a parenting media brand.2018
Fatherly, a digital media brand for parents co-founded by Michael Rothman and Simon Isaacs, reached significant scale by 2017: 2.5 million monthly visitors with 89% mobile traffic, 1.4 billion Facebook video views, and the Webby Award for Best Parenting Site. But rapid growth across editorial, video, social media, and audience development created organizational challenges around brand positioning, voice consistency, and product priorities.
The company needed strategic clarity on brand voice to inform editorial direction, video production, and product decisions across channels. Under After worked with Fatherly as interim Product Director and Design Lead through a nine-month engagement in 2017 to 2018, reporting to COO Michael Wertheim, addressing brand strategy, a visual identity refresh, editorial art direction, and product design.
As Fatherly's audience grew across channels, the company needed clarity on brand voice to inform editorial, video, audience development, and product decisions. Under After facilitated a brand strategy offsite with representatives from across the organization to establish consensus on positioning, voice, and values.
The offsite produced a revised mission statement, refined audience focus, updated brand characteristics, and position statements on editorial topics. These decisions informed the homepage redesign and connected brand strategy with product objectives.
Under After worked with editorial and social media teams to develop visual strategies for story imagery across site sections, moving beyond stock photos to enhance story meaning and drive social engagement.
The team tested image variations on social platforms to learn which approaches drove clicks, then compiled the learnings into a comprehensive editorial art direction guide covering image selection, vintage image use, and brand consistency.
With 89% mobile traffic and most visitors arriving from social media to individual articles, Under After redesigned the article template as the first major product initiative, with goals to improve the reading experience, increase newsletter signups, and improve content engagement.
Under After handled product requirements, user experience design, and coordination with contract developers and Division Of (a NYC agency) for development and QA, ensuring a smooth launch with minimal editorial workflow disruption.
“Mark worked with us on the very first wireframes of Fatherly through our brand redesign years later. He's a consummate professional and the rare breed that can competently tackle design, ux and product management all at once. Look forward to finding ways to collaborate with Mark in the future.”
The seahorse symbol remained central to the brand identity. Under After separated the wordmark and symbol from their previous lockup, allowing independent use across applications.
“As our interim head of product and design, Mark guided Fatherly through a re-brand and site re-design. His creativity, laser focus and passion shone through in each task he was assigned. Our refreshed logo and UX experience are so modern and clean and have received both internal and external praise. Working with Mark was such a delight and I would personally recommend him for any project moving forward.”
Under After also created visual identities for editorial franchises, including the Father of the Year awards and the Fatherly podcast.
“Mark worked for us at Fatherly [for 9 months] as our consulting, part-time head of product, but also of design, ux, and project management. He is incredibly skilled at each of these functions, immensely creative and talented, and really helped move our organization forward. He is a pro.”
Role: Interim Product Director and Design Lead (9-month consulting engagement)
Services: Brand Strategy Facilitation, Visual Identity Refresh, Editorial Art Direction, Product Design, Homepage Redesign, Product Roadmap Management
Client team: Michael Rothman (Co-Founder/CEO), Simon Isaacs (Co-Founder), Michael Wertheim (COO), Division Of (Development), Erin Nolan (Product Design).
Status: Visit Site