Square
The global pandemic has hit small businesses. Hard. But rather than focusing solely on the challenges faced over the past year, this piece created for Square, looks to a future filled with possibilities.
Square builds tools that help bring businesses (especially small ones) to life, by enabling them to reach their customers, manage their operations and access their financing. Without realizing it, you’ve probably seen one of their various card readers.
Instead of simply talking about survival or real time pivots (topics that have been covered extensively) we decided to shine a light on the enduring spirit of entrepreneurs and feature a diverse group of entrepreneurs who were bold and brave enough to start planning new locations, hiring new teams and launching new products or services in the midst of a global pandemic.
Whether they were serving up savory sandwiches based on a grandmother’s recipe in Harlem, offering telemedicine from a desert office park, creating an inclusive ceramics studio in Georgia, selling custom-printed T-shirts to jump-start a family legacy — or dreaming up inventive ways to attract new customers — these entrepreneurs proved that the entrepreneurial spirit is still very much alive in 2021.
As users scroll the manifesto, hovering over highlighted words reveals illustrated portraits of the business owners who are thematically connected to those specific phrases.
This drawer-style UX slides in from the right after a word is selected, making the manifesto more accessible to the viewer and allowing for readers to dive deeper into a specific profile and story. Carefully placed arrows enable readers to easily navigate from profile to profile. All of the profiles included in the manifesto also appear as a grid at the bottom of the page, serving as another entry point into the individual stories.
Credits:
Yinersi Gonzales, Designer
Eva Peng, Developer
Esther Haynes, Director, Editorial
S. Tia Brown, Senior Editor / Writer
Rhonda McClain: Editor
Mickey Butts, Senior Editor Temp / Writer
Rachel Birnbaum, Creative Director
Nicole Marie Rincon, Design Director
Fernando Capeto, Art Director
Lubomir Madolev, Sr. Content Producer
Ben James, Head of Creative
Artist: Uli Knørzer
Additional Writers: Angela Burt-Murray, Arnesa Howell