I joined the team as designer and strategist, helping build the site experience, brand identity, and creative assets that turned online momentum into corporate commitment in the two to three weeks leading up to Juneteenth.
The Hella Juneteenth site had to speak to everyone at once: everyday people who wanted to participate, major tech corporations evaluating whether to get involved, potential partners looking for ways to contribute, and vendors wanting to list local events. Each audience had different motivations, different questions, and a different definition of what "getting involved" meant.
Designing one experience that could convert all four without diluting the message for any of them was the central challenge. The stakes were cultural and political, not just functional. Getting the tone and hierarchy wrong, or the call to action wrong, meant losing the moment entirely.
The site wasn't just an awareness platform. It was a service design system built to convert interest into public commitment. When corporations landed on the site, clear CTAs guided them toward a structured pledge flow: submit company information and proof of recognition through an Airtable form, then be publicly listed on the site as a committed organization.
The public listing was a deliberate strategic decision. Companies could see who else had pledged, creating social proof and competitive pressure within industries. No tech company wanted to be visibly absent while their peers made the list. That's behavior design working in service of a larger goal.
The same submission architecture served vendors, allowing them to list Juneteenth events happening locally and nationally, turning the site into a living resource rather than a static campaign page.
The framework: We also developed templates and frameworks employees could use internally, helping them start conversations with their organizations about recognizing the holiday. The design extended beyond the site and into the rooms where decisions were actually made.
The entire experience was designed, built, and launched in the two to three weeks leading up to Juneteenth. There was no time for unnecessary complexity, extended iteration cycles, or features that didn't directly serve the mission. Every decision had to be the right one the first time.
That kind of constraint clarifies thinking fast. What does this person need to do right now? What would slow them down? What would make them leave? Those questions drove every design choice from information architecture to CTA copy to the pledge flow itself.
The week of Juneteenth
To help raise awareness, we designed a week-long event and its identity as a celebration, inviting people to learn about the true meaning of Juneteenth. The event gave the movement a physical presence and a cultural anchor that the digital platform alone couldn't provide.
The numbers tell part of the story. The rest of it is that Juneteenth is now a federal holiday.
655+
Companies across industries pledged to observe Juneteenth
250K+
Employees and business owners reached through resources and templates
265M+
Unique impressions across social, press, and corporate communications
It started as a few Instagram posts. It ended with a national holiday. The design didn't do that alone. But it built the platform that made the movement scalable.
Press
Atlanta Journal-Constitution·Condé Nast Traveler·San Francisco Chronicle·Fortune·HuffPost·Fast Company·Newsweek·Elle