Hogarth

For the past few years at Hogarth Worldwide, I led production and QC on a component library and asset pipeline for a confidential Cupertino client, serving five downstream teams (print, retail, interactive, Keynote, and video) and a group of 10+ artists. Due to the confidential nature of the work, final deliverables aren't shown here, but the process below reflects how the system was built, maintained, and evolved over time. Thank you for your understanding!

The Problem

A new component needed roughly 10 variants in different colorways and device sizes. Producers wanted to submit the full set for processing together to move faster, but none of the variants had been approved yet. If the base design came back with changes, every single one would need to be reworked, not just corrected once in one file to stay consistent.

Solution

1. Made the case for sequencing. I proposed building and submitting one variant first, to get the base design approved before touching the others.

2. Stood firm under pushback. The producer was disappointed, since it meant a slower start, but understood the reasoning once I walked through the rework risk and excess resource spend.

3. Built the rest after approval. Once the first variant cleared review, the remaining ones were built against an approved base instead of a guess.

Outcome

Changes did come back on that first build. Because the others hadn't been built yet, the fix applied once instead of across 10 files. The producer later agreed holding the sequence had been the right call.

Other Problems Solved

Adjusting based on team feedback 

Other teams asked to have variant coverage cut down; it had grown to roughly 50 states in a particular component and become hard to work with. Rather than defending the existing system, I pulled usage data to confirm which states could safely go, and rebuilt around the 14 or so that were most widely used.

Cross-artist consistency 

Different artists building the same asset from the same spec still create variations in their decision making such as choosing different hex codes, ways to build icons, and paddings. Building reference documentation plus real-time QC of files gave downstream teams one version to match against.