Michael Zimmermann

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House & Home redesign

2015

I was brought in to House & Home in 2008 to spearhead the initial full site redesign and development.

Many months of research and working with in-house and external designers, as well as revisions and approvals from multiple stakeholders went into the initial design and the subsequent homepage revisions. In additions to building the department structure, I evaluated and hired appropriate designers and developers. Every aspect was freshly examined, including a new IA, content rollout and strategy, and a move to the Drupal CMS.

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Filed Under: Website Tagged With: apple, House & Home Magazine, House & Home TV, Maison & Demeure

Samsung TV app

2015

Working with an external development company, I led the design and implementation of the House & Home app for Samsung SmartTVs.

Title cards showcase the excellent photography and lighting in the videos.

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Clean, elegant navigation allows viewers to get to the content as easily as possible. New content is added three times a week.

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Ad rolls served by Google DFP were integrated from the start as a business model to support the app.

Filed Under: SmartTV Tagged With: House & Home Magazine, Samsung

House & Home Media Kit

2015

An update to the printed media kit traditionally used by sales teams, this digital version provided an opportunity to rebrand and consolidate the look and feel across multiple pieces.

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The web resource would allow clients to log in, view information and statistics, and enable sales associates to track interested prospective advertisers.

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Filed Under: mobile, Print, Tablet, Website Tagged With: House & Home Magazine

Homesense What’s your Style

2014

A bold, client-branded ongoing campaign, with planned refreshes throughout multiple years, this prime example of a multi-faceted campaign comprises microsites, contest entries, enewsletters, custom videos and galleries, and centred around interior designer content integration in English and French. Other House & Home client work can be seen here.

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Filed Under: Enewsletter, Website Tagged With: Homesense, House & Home Magazine

House & Home Mobile

2014

Without a much needed responsive redesign in sight due to budget constraints, we designed a stop-gap /m solution that would deliver 90% of the content in a straightforward manner. The site architecture was somewhat mirrored, but both content and design decisions were made to allow a quick rollout with existing resources.

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Filed Under: Website Tagged With: House & Home Magazine

House & Home Digital Editions

2013

In addition to the online departments, I directed the team that designed and produced the various digital editions of the magazine.

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These designs were produced in their entirety by the in-house tablet team.

 

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I also maintained the relationships with multiple newsstands (iOS, Google Play, NextIssue, Zinio, Nook), and sent monthly marketing support materials.

 

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It was important that to our readers, actions and usage became familiar. We developed a set of behaviours and representative icons, and documented them for both designers and readers.

 

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Advertisers were encouraged to take advantage of the dynamic features of Adobe’s DPS suite, and, like an agency, we created ads to client specs.

 

Filed Under: mobile, Tablet Tagged With: House & Home Magazine, Samsung

House & Home Client work

2009

Similar to client-branded campaigns, House & Home advertising partner campaigns required careful alignment with a client’s marketing goals.

Each client would have its own branding guidelines, of course, but my goal at House & Home was to augment the client’s message with our trusted name and reputation. This meant that editors needed to write in a style that felt familiar House & Home, and that our design team needed to keep true to the in-house aesthetic while respecting the client brand standards.

Some campaigns would be based on a related print ad or external campaign, so designs needed to complement the parent work.

My level of involvement differed with each project. In every case, however, I would review internal revisions, approve designs before they were sent to clients, monitor development, and approve for final deployment.

 

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General Paint · microsite)

 

Proctor & Gamble · microsite
LG · microsite
South Hill Home · enewsletter
General Paint · enewsletter

Filed Under: Enewsletter, Website Tagged With: Airwick, General Paint, House & Home Magazine, Indigo, Princess Margaret, Proctor & Gamble, South Hill Home