Intro

A Gibson J45 was the first guitar I ever owned. It was my mother’s guitar that she received from my grandfather, who exclusively played Gibson instruments. I always had a certain connection with the brand. It felt like it was part of my family’s story. While working at Gibson, I felt like I was part of a much longer thread with a rich history.

I think my title was Senior Interactive Designer, but due to high turnover in leadership, I ended up with much more agency than my title warranted. I came into the position without receiving much direction because who I would typically report to had been recently let go. Rather than just sitting at my desk, I launched into a self-initiated redesign of all our websites. The interim head of the web team took interest in my work and submitted it up to the CEO for approval. He loved it.

My objectives were pretty clear to me. I had my own personal passion for our product, and I knew what I would want to see. You can’t purchase a guitar from Gibson.com. People didn’t come there to buy things—you couldn’t. They came to experience art, to cultivate their passion, and to be inspired. They came because they couldn’t make it to the guitar shop on their lunch break. I knew my job was to make the guitar the central focus.

Practically, this meant making the body of the guitar as large as possible. Everything was subservient to the display of the instrument itself. I championed the idea of visually driven navigation. This meant seeing the guitars themselves when making selections instead of clicking on model names—just like they would at a guitar shop.

My art direction was firmly rooted in the conviction that these instruments didn’t need anything from me to make them appealing. What they needed was a digital presentation that respected their prestige. Focusing on my concept of a visually driven navigation led to some pretty innovative interfaces, which unfortunately are now lost as they were built in Flash.

In addition to overseeing some major redesigns of our corporate websites, I was also heavily involved with the launch of new products. Because we lacked a CMO at the time, I was called upon to play a central design role on the team tasked with promoting new products. Most every product got its own microsite, which became a great place to test new ideas. It’s where I developed our first 360-degree product experience, which eventually made it onto standard product pages.

In addition to Gibson’s flagship websites, I also redesigned Gibson Lifestyle, an editorial site focused on music news. I built a custom music player, feature carousel, and video player as part of the design.