Tolkien Online

HarperCollins needed dedicated eCommerce sites for several of their book-selling brands, Tolkien Online among them. As a long-time Lord of the Rings reader, this was one I was glad to get - the brief was to give the store its own voice, distinct from HarperCollins' main site, while staying true to the tone of the books.

Approach

The early designs leaned hard into Tolkien's atmosphere - heavy background texture and imagery. Through review, we pulled that back: less atmosphere, more focus on the product itself, so a browsing customer could actually find and buy a book without fighting the page for attention. Enough of that Middle-earth mood stayed in the typography and supporting art to keep the store feeling distinct.

Where this project sits today

This project dates from June 2010, earlier in my career, working on the HarperCollins account. I'm including it here because the underlying design thinking - restraint, letting the product lead, using illustration to add character without adding noise - still holds up, and it's a rare chance to show design work for a major publishing brand.