EO Magazine
Two years on one editorial product, from first CMS pass to design-system governance and v2.0.
- Client
- EO Studio
- Years
- 2024—2026
- Role
- Product design, front-end, design system
- Status
- Live at eomag.io
Problem
EO Magazine is EO's editorial product, and I have been its designer from the first CMS pass in April 2024 through the v2.0 kickoff in August 2026. A publication run by a small team has one structural risk: every surface, from layout to imagery to color tokens, drifts unless someone owns the system underneath it.
2024 — zero to launch
First design pass on a news-site layout while the CMS was still being assembled, then two rounds of naming exploration benchmarked against brand publications like Figma's Shortcut. Launch support in November 2024: the feedback screen, QA, article prep, and a deliberate two-article soft launch with a feedback loop instead of a big-bang release.
2025 — one hand, many images
Article imagery came from generative tools, so the style had to be decided before the volume: I locked a Midjourney style-reference code so every article image reads as one publication regardless of who generates it. The same year: a name-chip component for two-person interviews, monthly theme treatments, and a competitive research memo on how Figma's Shortcut grew.
2026 — governance, then v2.0
In January I restructured the Figma setup: one source-of-truth design-system file for components, variables and foundations, plus frozen versioned UI snapshots, with an explicit rule that no variable or component edits happen in UI files. The reason: version archaeology was quietly corrupting live components. In July, one subscription-form bug report turned into a full-site dark-mode audit; more than fifty color bugs fixed and shipped to production. In August, v2.0 kicked off with a quote-highlight feature I designed, built, staged on the release-candidate site, and shipped.
Outcome
Live at eomag.io. Two continuous years on one product is the point: the same person carried it from dummy articles to a governed design system and a v2.0.