The Independent — Premium rebrand & app
Breaking news as it happens, not after. Rebranded Independent Minds to Independent Premium across 250+ touchpoints in two weeks, then built the brand new app.
Independent Premium rebrand
In August 2019, my team was given the task of rebranding paid-for content from Independent Minds to Independent Premium. We were given a single hex code that senior management liked and briefed in to create a brand — a proverbial "good luck" and a pat on the back.
The deadline: two weeks to completely strip 250+ touchpoints of any Independent Minds branding, create an Independent Premium brand including logo, brand language, and design assets, and ensure it fit the parent brand more effectively than Independent Minds had.
Transitioning from Independent Minds to Independent Premium
We introduced a wider colour palette alongside the premium-base colour to give the design system depth and layering. Working closely with developers directly in the code made the switch from old to new as quick and effective as possible.
The expanded Premium colour palette
Selling page
While creating the new look, we needed to keep the e-commerce frontage up to date. Data showed very few users made it the whole way down the existing page — so we simplified to a 5-panel layout, each panel geared towards a different persona-focused encouragement to subscribe.
Independent Premium app
After the rebrand, working alongside a UX designer and PM, we created the brand new Independent Premium app — a complete overhaul of a previously unsuccessful live news app. Over roughly two months we built a lean component suite, married to CMS components so editors could easily create layouts that worked on both web and app.
Key focus areas included a Premium feed showcasing content front and centre (roughly seven pieces per day), a redesigned News feed preserving the existing Independent Live experience, and a new Extras section for ebooks, events, and puzzles — discovered through user testing with card sorting exercises to determine where users expected these features to live.
- Premium feed — today's and yesterday's highlights, with a free daily sample to drive conversions
- News feed — retained existing content in a format appropriate for app
- Extras — ebooks, Independent Premium events (Eventbrite-linked), and puzzles