Founded in 1843, Macmillan Publishers is an international publishing company with over 10 imprints and operating in more than 70 countries.

Publishing a wide array of authors across genre and awards, including Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners, Macmillan continues to be a leader in the world of publishing.

The Macmillan team came to Barrel to reimagine the website's presence in order to best showcase their expansive roster of books and authors as well as give users a home to learn, shop, and interact with the content.

Barrel was able to refresh Macmillan's branding within its digital presence, to better reflect their place in the modern publishing world, while still reflecting on the past. By combining a modern color palette and sense of space with an old-style serif typeface, Barrel created a site that encouraged the discovery of books, authors and their related content in a way that felt guided yet still exploratory.

With a comprehensive catalog that stretches across mediums, genres, and more, we were inspired by the experience one might find at a local bookstore. It was critical that users could discover exactly what they are looking for, in a seamless and guided manner. In order to achieve this, Barrel developed a Book Finder quiz that allows users to narrow down the catalog by categories such as Genre, Length, and Age Range.

With the concept of a bookstore in mind, it was key to highlight Macmillan’s breadth of publications in a distinct and attention-grabbing way. Through the use of a branded, hand drawn style, we developed a unique set of illustrations to represent Macmillan’s most popular genres, as well as other moments across the site.

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