Under After served as interim Product Director and Design Lead for Fatherly through a nine-month engagement in 2017-2018. Work included brand strategy, visual identity refresh, editorial art direction, and product design for the Webby Award-winning parenting media site.
Fatherly is a digital media brand for parents co-founded by Michael Rothman and Simon Isaacs. In 2017, the site served 2.5 million monthly visitors with 89% mobile traffic, generated 1.4 billion Facebook video views, and won the Webby Award for Best Parenting Site.
Under After worked with Fatherly as interim Product Director and Design Lead through a nine-month consulting engagement in 2017-2018, reporting to COO Michael Wertheim. The engagement addressed brand strategy, product design, visual identity, and editorial art direction.
Brand Strategy
As Fatherly's audience grew across multiple 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 brand 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 process and connected brand strategy with product objectives.
Editorial Art Direction
Under After worked with editorial and social media teams to develop visual strategies for story imagery across site sections. The approach moved beyond stock photos to create distinctive visual strategies that enhanced story meaning and drove social engagement.
The team tested image variations on social platforms to determine which approaches drove clicks, then compiled these learnings into a comprehensive editorial art direction guide covering image selection, vintage image use, and brand consistency.
Article Page Redesign
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. Goals included improving the reading experience, increasing newsletter signups, and improving content engagement.
Under After handled product requirements, user experience design, and coordination with contract developers and Division Of (a NYC-based agency) for development and QA, ensuring smooth launch and minimal editorial workflow disruption.
Visual Identity Refresh
Under After refreshed the Fatherly wordmark with stronger letterforms while preserving its recognizable style. The updated wordmark scales well to all sizes.
The seahorse symbol remained central to the brand identity. Under After separated the wordmark and symbol from their previous lockup configuration, allowing independent use across different applications.
Secondary Brands
Under After created visual identities for editorial franchises including Father of the Year awards and the Fatherly podcast.
Video Graphics
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)