david hose

Client:

Microsoft Office

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

Visually refresh Microsoft’s Office Application Icons to reflect an evolution of significant product changes. With this icon redesign we faced two big challenges. We needed to signal innovation and change while maintaining a familiarity for Office’s 1 billion+ customers.

Solution:

I Partnered with multiple product teams and stakeholders to create a comprehensive design solution for each Office application icon. Simplicity and harmony were key visual elements when creating each Office app. We incorporated an updated color palette choosing hues that are bolder, lighter and friendlier. While each app icon has a unique symbol representing the app’s core functionality, the system is tied together by a set of guidelines which creates harmony across the collective suite.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

Visually refresh Microsoft Paint 3D icon for the release of Windows 10 Creators Update.

Solution:

I Partnered with multiple teams within the Microsoft design community to develop a solution that was familiar to Microsoft’s customers while signaling innovation. The result was an application icon that stylistically familied with other Microsoft 1st Party Applications while maintaining familiarity with the original application icon.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Illustrator, Production

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10 the Windows Design Language Team wanted to update their full emoji keyboard. This task was started with the collaboration of the Microsoft Design Group (WDG) and Oregon base design team Always with Honor. Together they created a set of 450+ emojis which set the framework and tone for all future emoji designs. They defined a style based on pure geometry that was friendly, expressive and bright to replace the existing set. The primary challenge was building a system that was pixel-perfect that worked with Microsoft’s various dpi requirements while maintaining legibility at smaller sizes. This system’s notable feature required a solid black border so the emojis could sit on a full spectrum of background colors without getting lost. Once the system was established the work was brought in-house.

Our small internal team continued the task of creating emoji based on the emoji consortium’s (a group of design leads representing companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.) approved list of new emoji candidates. The challenge was to continue the work based on the framework established and maintain the design system’s integrity. Together we created hundreds of new emoji. This process involved numerous iterations, revisions and final geological sign-off. Once the emoji was approved we created font-ready files enhanced for color layering

Solution:

Once the style was established I designed hundreds of emoji using Illustrator maintaining visual consistency and attention to detail. Following approval of each, I create an individual font-ready layered illustrator file separating each layer by color and masking off shapes for optimal viewing at smaller sizes.

Windows 10 October 2018 Emojis featured on Emojipedia!

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Designer, Production

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10 the Windows Design Group (WDG) wanted to visually refresh all the operating system’s File Explorer Icons. The first challenge was to perform a thorough icon audit of all the File Explorer icons that were actively being used by the operating system. The second challenge was to create a system of icons with a refreshed look while maintaining some cohesion and familiarity to the legacy set of icons. Extensive explorations including line weight, color palette, color application, angles, light source, and size requirement for high dpi displays.

Solution:

Once the style was established and tested by our team I designed hundreds of desktop styled icons for Windows 10 File Explorer.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Designer, Production, System Maintenance

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft wanted to replace Windows 8/8.1 Segoe UI Symbol icon font with Segoe MDL2 Assets font. The challenge was to create an updated style of glyph assets (or icons) with a consistent line weight, placement and consistent usage of preestablished metaphors.

Solution:

Once a style was established our design team created a library of common-elements used to maintain consistency between thousands of icons we’ve since created. Segoe MDL2 Assets font icons are constantly being added and are now successfully implemented in the Windows 10 OS.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft wanted to create a series of tips for its Tips application to help users navigate Windows. The challenge was to create supporting illustrations to help conceptualize the tips documentation.

Solution:

I collaborated with writers and content producers to create unique illustrations using guidelines developed by the WDG design team. The illustrations were designed to focus the user’s attention using abstracted UI (focusing the user on the primary content of the tip while abstracting the surrounding user interface). In some cases animation was best suited for the tip, in these cases I created a series of key frames for our animators to animate.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

Create a series of Microsoft Ninja-cat holiday desktop wallpaper for download from Microsoft Store. Our small team of illustrators was tasked with creating uniquely themed wallpaper which required Microsoft’s Ninja cat in epic landscapes and scenarios.

Solution:

I drew up some quick ideas then jumped into illustrator to create 3 uniquely themed ninja cat desktop wallpapers. This project was super fun and collaborative.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 8 Microsoft wanted to visually refresh some of it’s existing icons and added additional icon to the operating system. Extensive explorations including line weight, color palette, color application, angles, light source, and size requirement for high dpi displays were performed.

Solution:

Once the style was established I designed hundreds of icons for application such as Mail using Photoshop paths and various layer effects as defined by the style guidelines. Once the icons were approved, I created 6 additional sizes to satisfy high dpi requirements.

Client:

Microsoft

Role:

Illustrator

Challenge:

Create illustration assets for various Microsoft groups including Rewards, Tips, and other Microsoft groups.

Solution:

I brainstormed, sketched and created original vector illustrations adhering to the brand guidelines, translating ideas into detailed illustrations.

When time permits, I love the challenge of creating vector based illustrations from existing references. Here are two examples that show the process from monoline to full color rending. Both were created using Adobe Illustrator.