Graham Slick

Every project UX, Design

WGN America

Story Worldwide’s pitch to redesign WGN America’s website, built on two words, step inside: the site for desktop, iPad and iPhone, and a pitch video.

When
2014
Role
Associate creative director
At
Story Worldwide, New York
For
WGN America

In 2014 WGN America asked agencies for proposals to redesign its website, WGNAmerica.com. Story Worldwide’s pitch, with Graham as associate creative director, was built on two words, step inside: the site for desktop, iPad and iPhone, and a pitch video.

The homepage opens on the next episode of one of the network’s original series, here Manhattan, with an invitation to step inside it, a strip of the other originals and a running schedule of what’s on right now, up next and tonight. Each original gets a page in its own colors, with the cast, apps and games, and the next episode. WGN On, for watching full episodes on the site and in an app, plays an episode above a timeline of viewers’ comments, which anyone watching can add to and share on Twitter.

The title cards for the video glow in the same deep blue: step inside our past, worlds and intrigue, step inside Manhattan and Salem, and at the end the all new WGN America. The storyboard ran from It’s a new day to It’s a new WGNA, and the network’s program blocks got matching cards, from WGNA Rewind to WGNA Sunday. The comps use the network’s own key art and stills for its shows.

Roles Creative direction · UI and UX

The WGN America homepage: Next episode Sunday 9/14 10P over Manhattan’s key art, a bomb in the desert sand beside a small town, with Step inside Manhattan and a play button; below, tabs for Manhattan, Salem, Outlaw Country and Underground, and what’s on right now, up next and tonight
The homepage
A splash screen: The all new WGN America and step inside, glowing in deep blue, above the schedule bar
The splash screen
WGN On: an episode of Salem, The Vow, playing at full width, with a timeline of viewers’ comments under the player and a box for posting one and sharing it on Twitter.
WGN On, with its comment timeline
The Salem page in pale green: Witch War over the show’s art of a woman with branches for wings, a column of icons down the left, and tiles for the cast, apps, games and the season premiere
Salem’s page
The Outlaw Country page in orange and gold: two of the show’s cast at a table beside the title, with tiles for the cast, a Badass Index app, a tattoo game and the first episode, premiering March 2015
Outlaw Country’s page
The homepage on an iPhone: Manhattan’s next episode and Step inside Manhattan, the show tabs and what’s on right now
On an iPhone
The WGN On app icon: WGN ON in gray on a dark navy square, the O drawn as a blue power symbol, with America below
The WGN On app icon
A title card from the pitch video: step inside, Intrigue, in white light on a deep blue ground flecked with stars
A title card from the pitch video
A storyboard frame: a crow in silhouette on a branch beside It’s a new world, in deep blue
From the video’s storyboard
A title card for one of the network’s program blocks, WGNA Rewind, on the same glowing blue ground
A program block