Introduction:
Platform University is a members-only online community and public-facing blog with the training, resources, and guidance you need to build a successful online platform—all in one place! The community comes from Michael Hyatt’s bestselling book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. The staff needed some extra design help for a new marketing initiative and called me to help.
Process:
My contact gave me a list of needs and loose direction. I needed to create an illustration that explained 5 Essentials of a platform, a workbook cover, and a bundle graphic that contained the workbook.
Illustration
This illustration was the tricky part. The graphic needed to communicate what the 5 Essentials of a platform are and how they help set you apart in a noisy world. As always, sketching is an important part of my design process. Each idea was sketched out beforehand, then iterations were made digitally. I tried two different methods:
- Focusing on what the essentials ARE: I explored the idea that it was most important for the audience to know and remember what each Essential is by name. I designed a simple icon for each Essential and laid them out in progressive bubbles.
- Focusing on what the essentials DO FOR YOU: I realized it was probably more important for the audience to get what mastering the Essentials did FOR them, instead of focusing on what they are. I realized each Essential builds on itself, so I created a variety of visualizations to show how the overall idea of using these 5 Essentials to rise above the noise could help the audience.
Final Concept:Â The Platform team loved both approaches so they were blended together into one new image. Instead of the Essentials building on each other, they build in sequence creating a platform you can actually sand on instead of the top of a small pillar. The final image was used in presentations.
Bundle
It’s true that there are many bundle graphic templates online, but you’ll often spend more time customizing it and getting it to work than you might creating your own! I created this customized book and resource bundle from free mockup templates and creating my own mockup for the templates.
Workbook Cover
The workbook cover I created needed to fit in with the rest of the e-books from Platform University, and it needed to use the logo for the program (which Platform University provided to me). The logo spoke for itself, so designing a clean, simple workbook cover was a quick project.
