Erin E. Hughes

Portfolio

CLIENT: University System of Georgia’s Office of Leadership and Institutional Development
PROJECT DATE: November 2020
MY ROLE: Graphic design and identity development; creation of collateral materials and a style guide
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator; Microsoft PowerPoint, Word
SEE MORE: Case Study

CLIENT: University System of Georgia
PROJECT DATE: Initial development July/August 2022 (ongoing)
MY ROLE: Web design, prototyping, user experience, infographics, motion graphics
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, AfterEffects, XD
OVERVIEW: The creation of this "one-stop shop" website involved three developers, several departments and the entire executive leadership team. The resulting website is a great resource for parents and students looking to make informed decisions about college and everything it entails. Georgia Degrees Pay provides state and national data on cost of attendance, student success, potential future earnings and more. Because it was launched rapidly, thanks to the efforts of so many, enhancements to the site and its design are ongoing.
SEE MORE: GDP website

CLIENT: Georgia FinTech Academy
PROJECT DATE: July 2019
MY ROLE: Wireframing, prototyping
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, XD
OVERVIEW: Georgia is a global fintech hub, home to hundreds of fintech companies. In an effort to develop more talent for this high-demand industry, the University System of Georgia launched the Georgia FinTech Academy in September 2018. I was asked to design a website for GFTA that would attract prospective students and sponsors. Although GFTA has since been rebranded, I am still proud of my work on its original website. This was the first website I ever designed and my first time using Adobe XD. I was able to deliver a fully interactive prototype that was well-received by the stakeholders and put into production for several years.

CLIENT: Athens Banner-Herald
PROJECT DATE: 2010
MY ROLE: Graphic design and identity development
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
OVERVIEW: One of the best experiences I had working at a daily paper was being tasked with redesigning and rebranding Marquee, the newspaper's weekly entertainment section. As I was part of Marquee's target demographic (as well as an avid reader of its biggest competitor, Athens' alt-weekly Flagpole Magazine) I felt well-equipped to offer a fresh take on it to attract more readers my age and younger. The redesign, which launched the standalone section into more online spaces and social media, resulted in an award-winning, one-of-a-kind mini-publication that reconnected with a transient college town.

CLIENT: Georgia Transfer Articulation Cooperative Services
PROJECT DATE: February 2021
MY ROLE: Prototyping, information architecture and logo creation
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, XD
OVERVIEW: A couple of years ago, Georgia Transfer Articulation Cooperative Services, or GATRACS, rebranded itself to clarify for the general public its mission: helping transfer students "make every course credit count." To enable what is now simply called Georgia Transfer to spread the word about the suite of tools it offers for students, advisors and guidance counselors, I designed a hi-fi prototype of a streamlined website and a new logo.

CLIENT: University System of Georgia Foundation
PROJECT DATE: October 2021
MY ROLE: Graphic design
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop
OVERVIEW: If done well, annual reports provide persuasive insight into the value of current and potential investments. But it can be challenging to design engaging content around financial statements. For these, I draw on my inspiration from USG campuses. Each fall, we ask folks at all 26 institutions we serve to send us a few images. Behind these images — which capture quiet moments on quads, innovative research in labs, euphoric milestones in stadiums and everything in between — are impactful stories that spark great design ideas.
SEE MORE: Report PDF

CLIENT: Emerging Media Advanced Web Development Final Project
PROJECT DATE: December 2022
MY ROLE: Web design and development
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator, VS Code (HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
OVERVIEW: HyperTyper was a tricky but rewarding endeavor for me. My true client in this case was my son, who dared me to build him his own version of a typing game he plays at school. The biggest challenge was tying the typing functions to the movement of the typer's car and timing the movement of the other cars to be slower than that. While I initially planned to have a larger word bank that varied each race, it became evident during user testing that I needed to make the game easier for my 9-year-old so he would stay motivated enough to play.
SEE MORE: HyperTyper

CLIENTS: Athens Banner-Herald; University System of Georgia
PROJECT DATE: 2007-current
MY ROLE: Graphic design
TOOLS USED: Adobe Illustrator
OVERVIEW: Maps are in many ways what put me on the map as a designer. I started making maps and then other graphics around 2007, after the first of many rounds of cuts to the newsroom staff. I taught myself how to use Illustrator, and my abilities as a designer took off from there. I got good enough that I was asked by the Georgia Press Association to give a workshop on my map design process in 2011. I still love creating maps and infographics because they allow me to convey information in a visually appealing way without a lot of words or a lot of space.