Photoshop Express allows users to apply toning adjustments, textured overlays, borders, SVG stickers, text, and "themes" (a preset combination of any of the above "ingredients") to their photos. Other Kvell teams conducted focus group interviews concluding that the app's existing assets weren't resonating with the clients' Gen Z target audience. So my team was tasked with helping to update the app with aesthetics that teens and young adults would be excited to use. What we created was informed by a mix of trend research (ex. film aesthetic, surreal collages, Y2K-inspired ingredients) and client-provided cultural calendar priorities (ex. Golden Week in Japan, Pride Month).

Our team delivered around 40 themes and over 100 individual "ingredients" per quarter. We were responsible for:

• Researching Gen Z visual trends (primarily through social media), then creating moodboards showing how they could be translated into each "ingredient" asset type

• Creating the "ingredient" assets (largely with original illustration and photography) and developing complementary toning adjustment "edit recipes"

• Arranging "ingredients" into preset theme layouts, adapting each theme for five different aspect ratios, and sourcing placeholder images to showcase them

• Delivering all assets and metadata for the Photoshop Express internal app development team to implement them for consumer use

Agency: Kvell

ACD: Jenna Koyama

Art Director: Stefanie Drinkwater, Kasey Aleixo

Designers/Illustrator: Emily Lopez, Becky Bacoka, Ricky Ostendi