United Nude: Working For An International Footwear Brand
During a four-year period in China, I joined an architecturally-inspired international footwear brand co-owned by Rem D. Koolhaas and Galahad Clark. Starting in late 2010 as a UX designer at their Guangzhou headquarters, I collaborated with the creative and art directors on campaign materials, photography, and digital initiatives.
Autumn/Winter 2011
The redesign introduced a dark theme aligned with the brand’s retail concept. I created a boxed background effect for product photography, drawing inspiration from the company’s lightbox display walls.
Following the successful website overhaul and development partnership with a Netherlands-based team, the group produced newsletters and marketing materials.
Spring/Summer 2012
New campaign requirements specified a light theme emphasizing white-on-white aesthetics with models and product focus. I contributed to photoshoot concept meetings and led the seasonal redesign.
Search Feature Enhancement: I designed an improved search component offering more helpful criteria. I created internal presentations demonstrating user interaction flows.
Navigation Optimization: Responding to sales team requests, I implemented a system enabling product purchases within two clicks from anywhere on the site, featuring consistent product lists and earlier "add to cart" accessibility.
Promotion & Analytics Work
Following the Spring/Summer 2012 launch, I became UX Design Lead, shifting focus from seasonal launches to optimization. My responsibilities expanded to include marketing campaign planning and team coordination.
2013 Initiatives:
- Quarterly analytics reports covering website, social, marketing, search, and newsletter performance
- Optimization recommendations including 404 error page conversion improvement through newsletter signup CTAs
- Sitewide incentive additions for newsletter enrollment
- Product slideshow series reinforcing brand differentiators
- Comprehensive product details page overhaul with improved selectors and user guidance features
Testimonial
"Mark made a solid contribution overall … he became a valued member of the business who we felt was capable of delivering very good value."
— Laurence Mead, Managing Director