Building DOSE in 5 Days

Amidst one of the largest political awakenings, we paused all normal business operations to build DOSE.

Building DOSE in 5 Days

Projects
John B Johnson
a small studio
By 
May 24, 2022

Pausing, so we could focus.

June 2020 marked the largest political awakening we have seen in years, prompted by the death of George Floyd. As a black man, our Co-Founder and Principal John B Johnson, notified the team that we would be pausing all operations to focus on helping the movement. Upon making the decision, we began notifying all of our clients, who blew us away with resounding support and desire to help however possible. We also rallied a collection of creatives who helped us uncover exactly what we could create to make an impact during such a turbulent time.

Fostering safe dialogue.

The initial idea was based off of Dr. Julia Garcia's Dose framework. A person would read a set of prompts and be asked to share their response. The prompts are designed to help guide people through difficult thoughts and situations.

The goal was to open up safe and impactful dialogue between those who have the black experience and those who have not. This platform allowed black voices to share their perspective safely while at the same time allowed others who wished to gain perspective about the black experience and opportunity to hear it first hand. This gave all those struggling with the racial tension a space to deal.

"I couldn't ask my team to go about business as usual during this monumental fight against racial injustice."

John B Johnson

Principal of a small studio

When we started the branding process for DOSE one aspect was abundantly clear, sharing perspective. To do that, the identity needed to be clear and bold without taking away from the voices it's meant to amplify. In our research we stumbled upon a typeface, MARTIN, inspired by the font used in posters during the MLK labour strikes. It’s strong and structural, but removed from the digital feeling of modern typography.

We surrounded the DOSE flow with responses to illustrate a sense of community while people worked through the difficult prompts. Sharing your experience was a personal endeavor, but it also lifted the community of people who were sharing alongside you.

We used over 12 Years of experience to build a platform in 5 days! After our soft launch, the responses were unbelievable. We had people sharing their experiences of racial injustice with the community, and other people learning from those experiences.

The official launch was a blast. With help from our friends, we launched on Product Hunt less than 24 hours after shipping the product. We also ended up in over 20 blogs and newsletters and on the socials of some pretty amazing companies including; Webflow, Typeform, Sidebar, Product Hunt, UX Collective, Designer News and SEEDSPOT. It culminated in John giving a talk at the Webflow World Tour.

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