The White Lotus
On the heels of the season 3 finale of the hit HBO drama The White Lotus, The Hollywood Reporter published an expansive oral history that featured interviews with cast and crew of the show. Fifteen castmembers came together for photographs and interviews across three days in both New York City and Los Angeles.
My role in the project was designing a special digital landing page that would feature all of THR's exclusive White Lotus content. This included everything from stories to special portraits and plenty of video content. I also designed the print layout for the oral history cover story. You can see the entire project here.
Credits: Design by Clare Ramirez. Edited by Mikey O’Connell and Lacey Rose. Photographs by Guy Aroch. Artistic & fashion direction by Alison Edmond. Visual media direction by Ash Barhamand.
Topper
I came up with the idea of designing a dynamic topper for the page that featured the individual portraits of all 15 castmembers. The White Lotus is an ensemble cast, so it made sense to give each actor the same treatment, rather than choosing to highlight just a select few.
I worked closely with the photo team to choose the best portraits for each actor and place them in five groups of three. I had the idea to do a video topper that cycled through the five groups, and created this animation myself through Photoshop.
Portraits
In addition to the topper, I also wanted to highlight the cast and feature more of our exclusive photography in a more prominent part of the page. I had originally planned for three rows each with five vertical portraits, but reconfigured when we decided to include a mix of both horizontal and vertical images. The varying shapes made the grid feel more interesting and dynamic, and the overall treatment was an effective way to have a visual break in the landing page. On mobile, the grid disappears and the portraits appear in a slideshow format with vertical crops.
We also chose to highlight the two group portraits of the celebrities to show them together in their respective cities (New York and Los Angeles).
Mobile Design Treatment
On mobile, the topper video condenses into showing one celebrity at a time rather than three. The portrait grid transforms into a slideshow where users can swipe through and see the portraits one at a time.
Print Design
I worked closely with our visual director and our artistic & fashion director to determine a print layout that best captured and mimicked the approach of the hub. Our creative director worked with typographer Luke Lucas to design the headline for the print layout.
