How our redesign grew AfroTech from 500 to 20,000 users

AfroTech's library kept expanding across news, podcasts, video, and events. Yet, a library people cannot navigate earns nothing. The website's commercial value rests on discoverability: every story a reader finds means more time on site and more attention AfroTech can monetize. 

Our team designed the platform so content gets found: topic search spans multiple sources, filters narrow results by type, and the layout surfaces top stories alongside the latest updates. Each feature gives readers another way in, so they discover more per visit and stay longer. And because the structure holds up as the library keeps growing, every gain in content becomes a gain in engagement.

AfroTech's old site asked its audience to do one thing and then leave, which capped both time on site and the revenue tied to it. 

We reframed the website as a destination, giving the community several reasons to stay: long-form video, audio, editorial, and a careers space. 

The strategic move was the careers layer, which converts an engaged audience into a talent pool employers will pay to reach, opening a revenue line a media site alone cannot. 

Each format also compounds the others, since a reader who stays to watch or listen is worth more to advertisers and more likely to return. The revamped platform can now monetize from two directions at once, audience attention and recruiter demand, and serves as a foundation ready to carry new sub-brands as the business grows.

AfroTech's conference is its biggest revenue moment of the year, but that value used to vanish the day it ended. Worse, the program spanned so many stages that attendees often missed the very sessions they had paid for.

Our team designed AfroTech Connect as more than an event guide. At sign-in, the app asks attendees for their role, company, and goals, capturing the professional data behind AfroTech's recruiting business. Personalized schedules, messaging, and community feeds then keep people engaged during the conference. Ticket tiers and upgrade paths live inside the app, giving AfroTech a direct upsell channel during the year's highest-intent window.

AfroTech needed an identity as energetic as its community, and one that held together as the brand appeared in more and more places. Without a system, every new channel, product, and sub-brand risks looking disconnected, and a media brand competing for attention cannot afford to read as several different companies. 

We built AfroTech a scalable brand system and a brand guide to keep visuals and messaging consistent across every channel. The same identity carries from the core platform to merchandise, so each surface reinforces a recognizable brand. With the guide in place, AfroTech can expand confidently into new products and initiatives while staying aligned and standing apart from traditional platforms.

AfroTech runs a growing roster of events: the flagship Conference, the Executive series, and community meetups, each with its own audience to win. Designing each in isolation would scatter the brand and make every announcement start from zero. 

We designed custom visuals for AfroTech's events and subsidiary projects, tailoring each to its moment while keeping it unmistakably AfroTech. Every lineup, stage, and artist announcement gives an event enough presence to pull an audience, and a look that builds recognition for the parent brand at the same time.