Dominic LaMarca

Hotlists

Playaway’s quarterly hotlists are a primary tool for helping educators, librarians, and distributors navigate a large and frequently updated catalog. I produced these on a seasonal basis across all four major product lines: Playaway, Launchpad, Wonderbook, and WhaZoodle.

The existing design system provided the framework, and so my work centered on keeping everything accurate, consistent, and visually clean within that structure. Each update required careful attention to branding across the four distinct product lines, making sure the new content slotted in without disrupting the layout or hierarchy that made the hotlists easy to scan. Each one contains a curated set of content, complete with the author, genre, and pricing, for each, as well as a few featured titles that the company wanted to highlight – all without becoming visually overwhelming. A clean, structured grid with minimalist color choices and strategic use of bold typography allowed bestselling titles and award recognitions to stand out without competing with the surrounding content.

Every hotlist was built for dual use, optimized for both print distribution at conferences and schools and digital download from Playaway’s website. That dual-format requirement informed decisions around margins, font sizing, and color contrast throughout the design process.