Rivian was looking for a storytelling-forward web experience to announce their new manufacturing facility in Georgia. This wasn’t just about releasing a press statement, it was about shaping a digital moment that could communicate the brand’s bold vision, energize the public, and highlight Rivian’s investment in U.S. manufacturing. I served as the lead designer, working closely with internal teams, developers, and Rivian’s head design group to bring this vision to life.
Rivian announced their plans to build a manufacturing plant in rural Georgia. Since their audiences are typically more urban populations our team was brought in to build out an informational website focused on providing information to folks that wanted to know about Rivian in general and their plans to build in Georgia. The ask was to build out this informational site.
The audience work was extremely important here due to the focus of the site. With our strategy team we built out the different user personas for this project. The user personas were needed to help ground us in who we are building this site for and why. Our final personas included the "Georgian's", the Morgan County residents, and Local Leaders.
Once we completed the research phase and defined our audience segments; Local Georgians, State & Local Leadership, and Morgan County Residents, we began outlining the site. This included defining key content pillars (storytelling, community benefits, careers), the site map, and initial flows. We also conducted technical exploration around Squarespace to understand its customization limitations and how we could build something visually compelling while ensuring the Rivian team could maintain the site after handoff.
We began with low-fidelity wireframes, exploring multiple versions of the homepage and subpages to determine how much content we could include without overwhelming the user. Through several internal reviews and sessions with Rivian’s stakeholders, we refined the structure to emphasize scannability, layered storytelling, and modular content.
From there, we moved into high-fidelity mockups. We collaborated closely with Rivian’s in-house design team to ensure brand alignment, drawing inspiration from rivian.com while tailoring the experience for a more localized, informative feel. Every visual element—from photography to iconography—was vetted to ensure it felt true to the Rivian voice, yet distinct for this initiative.
This project was a great challenge in balancing storytelling, usability, and technical limitations. I had the opportunity to work hands-on with code, site architecture, and brand alignment—all while helping launch a high-impact initiative. The outcome was a site that both informed and inspired, and importantly, led to follow-up work with Rivian focused on showcasing their charging capabilities.
Asset like imagery, icons, font type, all came from Rivian. We pulled some images they have and some that we produced during filming the videos for the site.
This work taught me a lot about designing for underserved audiences, building within tight technical boundaries, and creating something flexible enough for client ownership. It’s a great example of what happens when storytelling, UX, and business goals meet in the right way.
