Preston So Designer

In late 2008, the Colorado Department of Labor approached Monarch Digital to develop its plans for a statewide community network meant to foster relationships between professionals and students interested in various fields.

I led the design, branding, product naming, and development of this prototype. With the initial premise of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), I spearheaded the name Stemworks as a unique and noticeable name. The identity you see in the screenshot above is also my work. The decision was made very early to develop the internal system in Drupal. I created initial concepts for the social network, collaborating with Randy Dalton of the Colorado Department of Labor in content strategy and execution. This design was very well-received and rapidly made it off the drawing board and into implementation.

In the design, I focused on the word stem and developed this initial concept into an array of creatively placed elements. Following discussions with Mr. Dalton, I led my team at Monarch into prototype work with the user side. I created numerous mock-ups of user interfaces, including templates for user inboxes, user home pages, and mentor-protégé interactions. I collaborated with my team members on projects ranging from generating standard CSS for user forms and separating the mentor experience from the protégé experience.