CBC News Korea · Case Study 2022 – Present

Designing the brand and voting experience for a fan platform with 71M+ votes cast.

Led brand identity, a modular design system, and the end-to-end voting experience for Netizen Awards — CBC News Korea's fan-voting platform. From a founder's sketch to a shipped product that's drawn 71M+ cumulative votes across its monthly cycles.

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CASE STUDY

Overview Brand Identity Design System Mobile Desktop Marketing? I got it.Impact Merchandise

TIMELINE

Oct 2022 - Present

TEAM

CEO, 2 Engineers

ROLE

Lead Product Designer

FOCUS

Brand · Design System · Global Voting

Overview

Designing for international fans all over the world.

Netizen Awards is CBC News Korea's fan-voting platform, where fans including international audiences following Korean entertainment vote monthly across categories in music, acting, sports, and business. As Lead Product Designer, I owned the brand identity, a modular design system, and the mobile and desktop voting experience end-to-end, taking the product from a founder's concept sketch to a live platform with 71M+ votes cast.

01 · Brand Identity

Four steps from sketch to shipped, 3D mark.

Translating a hand-drawn concept into a polished brand mark and dimensional trophy used across awards, packaging, and live broadcasts.

1. First sketch (CEO concept)

Hand-drawn concept with proportions and motif callouts.

2. Refined sketch

Tightened the lockup, simplified the trophy silhouette.

3. Wordmark lockup

Balanced typography and the wing / star / target motifs.

4. Final 3D trophy + identity

Dimensional mark used across awards, packaging, marketing.

02 · Design System

A modular voting button. For every state, every context.

Monthly cycles meant rendering against light award cards, dark mobile rails, and gold-tier moments. Rather than hacking one button into each context, I've designed five canonical states with shared geometry. For engineers to swap one token, not five layouts.

Default · Red

Standard light-context

Default · Dark

Premium / dark surfaces

Voted · Confirmed

Filled with checkmark

Voted · Light

Quiet, on light surfaces

Voted · Featured

Club tier / gold accent

03 · Product Experience: Mobile

Information density that respects fans.

Vote count, participation rate, growth %, club tier, and birthday CTA all live on one card — built on a strict 4-tier hierarchy. Notice the countdown timer and live totals anchored at the top.

Awards home

Live rankings + vote

Vote CTA never moves, persistent and right-aligned so a returning fan can vote in two taps, even one-handed on the train. Users can also click links to read news articles as it would direct to CBC News.

04 · Product Experience: Desktop voting dashboard

One system, two breakpoints.

Sidebar nav collapses, ranking cards reflow into a single column, and the persistent vote CTA repositions for thumb reach. Same component library, same visual rhythm — different layout grid.

05 · Brand Extension

Extended across CBC News properties.

Once Netizen Awards launched, the brand extended across the parent CBC News ecosystem. Ad banners on the news site header and the official YouTube channel art reaching 95K subscribers.